SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The Center for Biological Diversity, along with more than 50 indigenous and environmental groups representing more than a million people from around the world, has sent a letter to Virginia-based AES Corporation demanding it withdraw from three controversial hydroelectric projects threatening La Amistad International Park in Panama, dependent wildlife, and local communities slated to be displaced by flooding.

La Amistad International Park, designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations, forms part of the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. One of the planet's most biologically diverse places, it is home to at least 40 species of fish, 250 species of reptiles and amphibians, 215 species of mammals, and 600 species of birds, including the resplendent quetzal and the harpy eagle.

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La Amistad stretches from the Talamanca mountain range, from which rivers such as the Changuinola and its major tributary the Teribe flow through the largest intact tropical rainforest left in Central America into indigenous Naso and Ngobe territory, emptying into the Changuinola estuary and the Caribbean Sea. Both the rivers and the estuary harbor important fishery resources utilized by indigenous and non-indigenous Panamanians.

AES Corporation, based in Arlington, Virginia, has been financing three proposed dam projects on the Changuinola River, located on the border of the park, and its subsidiary in Panama, AES Changuinola, S.A., would operate the three dams. A fourth dam would be operated by Hidroecologica del Teribe, S.A., a subsidiary of the Colombian-owned Empresas Publicas de Medellin, on the Bonyic River, a tributary of the Rio Teribe.

Stream-monitoring studies have shown that the construction of even one dam would be catastrophic for aquatic biodiversity. Many of the fish and all shrimp species living in these rivers must migrate between the ocean and freshwater to complete their life cycles; the dams would block their migration and effectively extirpate up to 11 aquatic species from the Biosphere Reserve. Such a loss could have devastating and cascading consequences for indigenous culture, livelihoods, and biodiversity. (Click here for a "technical paper" on the potential consequences.)

Thousands of Ngobe people stand to have their villages flooded and will be forced to relocate. The Center has been working with indigenous leaders from both the Naso and Ngobe communities and with other environmental groups to send a strong message to AES Corporation that the dams are widely opposed by people living near the sites as well as public-interest groups around the world. Three letters were sent to AES, including one endorsed by over 50 non-governmental organizations, one explaining a recent violation of indigenous Ngobe rights, and one from the Ngobe imploring the corporation and its shareholders to cancel the projects. (Click here for copies of the letters.)

Controversy has persuaded other financiers to move away from the Panama dam projects. In 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank pulled its funding of the Bonyic Hydroelectric project following environmental and social concerns raised by the indigenous Naso community and environmental groups. Said Peter Galvin, conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity, "We are hoping to demonstrate to AES and its partners that the international community supports local efforts to preserve indigenous livelihoods and the extraordinary biodiversity of the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. We urge AES to follow the Inter-American Development Bank's example and pull out."

Further, recent studies have begun to demonstrate that reservoirs above dams are likely to be large contributors of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, making hydroelectric dams a liability in global warming.

For more information on the Center for Biological Diversity's work in Panama, click here

Contact Info:

Peter Galvin
Tel : 520-907-1533

Jason Gray
Tel : 406-781-4154

Website : the Center for Biological Diversity