Holding Amazon Megaprojects to Account

About this grant

For the past decade, South America has experienced a massive development wave, accompanied by considerable investments in regional transport and energy infrastructure that has begun to traverse sensitive Amazonian ecosystems. Friends of the Earth-Amazon Program is working to ensure there is improvement in the public review and project finance requirements for these projects, as well as requiring a more robust environmental and social impact assessment. One focus of this work will be a large waterway and hydropower project along the Madeira River, which impacts an estimated 220 million acres in the Amazon region. Through this grant, Friends of the Earth-Amazon Program will strengthen its consultative processes with leading international financial institutions to reduce the social and environmental impacts of this project on both the ecosystem and communities of the Amazon.