UF Center for Latin American Studies
Dr. Simone Athayde co-authored an article published in ScienceDirect.
June 27, 2019
Dr. Simone Athayde, et al, published Improving Policies and Instruments to Address Cumulative Impacts of Small Hydropower in the Amazon in the journal ScienceDirect.
The article highlights current policy challenges and options for assessing the impacts of small hydroelectric plants in the Amazon, which deserve more attention in both academic research and public policies. The authors review environmental licensing of seven small and one large dam in the Cupari river, a Tapajós tributary, which is being challenged in Federal Courts based on inadequate cumulative impact assessment. They argue for the need of adopting good practices in cross-scale environmental assessment when applying existing or new policy instruments.
The article was co-produced by researchers of the Amazon Dams Research Network/ Rede Internacional de Pesquisa em Barragens Amazônicas/ Red Internacional de Investigación en Represas Amazónicas (ADN/RBA/RIRA), in collaboration with Luisa Sangoi, Public Prosecutor of the Brazilian Prosecution Service (MPF). From this experience, a working group was formed focusing on the Science-Policy interface related to Small Hydropower implementation in the Amazon and beyond. Recently, this group contributed to a public consultation by the Brazilian Agency for Electric Energy (ANEEL) for reviewing a bill defining the main characteristics of small dams in Brazil. The link to the “Technical Note” prepared by the working group in contribution to this policy can be found here. If you are interested in joining this working group, reach out to Dr. Simone Athayde at simonea@ufl.edu.
