Comm: "The first large dam built in a tropical forest was at Tucurui on Brazil's River Tocantins.

"Dams were believed to be a clean source of energy, and no-one knew exactly what it would do to the forest - or to the animal and human societies, it supported. 15 years later, Tucurui was heavily criticised by the World Commission on Dams. This weeks programme looks back at what happened in the Amazon forest at Tucurui.

In its generating capacity, Tucurui is the 5th largest dam in the world. The dam was inaugurated in 1984 by the President of Brazil, Joao Figueiredo.

"Planted in the heart of Amazonia it will supply electricity to cities like Tucurui, Maraba, Belem, Vila do Conde and Imperatriz and also make possible the great projects of our frontier development.

"The lever will be activated by the President of the Republic and the President of Eletronorte.

"The rising waters flooded a forest the size of Sicily.

"Also thousands of farms and a dozen towns. Diving into the towns, we found that whole societies had vanished almost without trace except when we emerged under the rafters of the church and found an abandoned cat, starving and terrified.

"But when we tried to rescue it, the cat was so frightened, it swam off - to almost certain death from lack of food.

Comm: "Many animals were saved, however. For as the waters rose in 1984, the dam company sent out rescue teams. The main problem was animals which got trapped on islands too small to support them. They were collected to be released later in nearby forests.

"But as these forests were occupied already by the same species, most animals faced a territorial fight to the death. All this, therefore, was little more than a public relations spectacle organized by the dam company.

"At least, the displaced human population was able to protest. By 1984, 40,000 people had been driven out by the water. Most felt they were not properly compensated by the Federal Government's dam company, Eletronorte."

Raimundo Nonato de Azevedo President, Rural Workers' Union: "We're gathered here to negotiate with Eletronorte, to see if they will decide our case. They must decide, must give us what they took - our land, our houses."

Another protester (2nd male voice): "They promised land and a house that we would be proud of. They promised a school, a medical post, and good compensation."

Another union leader: "Yesterday there was a meeting of our Rural Workers' Union of Tucurui. But we were blocked by the State police at checkpoints on the road."

Josiel de Souza de Sa: "He points at wounds on people.

"Look, he already had his finger like this, but he was shoved like an animal. And this old man was poked with the barrel of a rifle. This man here had a rib broken. 10 people were wounded, one very badly. He went to Tucurui this night. I don't know what's happening to him."

Comm: "In 1984, Eletronorte justified this on the grounds of progress."

Dr. Humberto Rodrigues Gama Director General, Tucurui Hydroelectric Station: "With the first generators, we'll supply the region with a vast amount of energy. Together with the transport infrastructure we've set up, this will bring enormous development to the region."

Caption: Dr. Humberto Rodrigues Gama
Director General, Tucurui Hydroelectric Station: "Hydro-electric power is usually regarded as pollution free. But we discovered that underwater, there were so many decaying fragments of vegetation, that it was like a pea soup.

"The gases from the vegetation contributed roughly one 6th of all Brazil's greenhouse emissions according to the National Institute for Amazonian Research."

Philip Fearnside, Ecologist of Agroecosystems: "I've made a calculation for how much was emitted in the year 1990 - which is the standard year for greenhouse gas inventories under the Climate Convention. And then it was the equivalent to between 7 and 10 million metric tons of carbon, as carbon dioxide that was emitted by Tucurui, which is a tremendous amount. That is more than the whole city of Sao Paulo emits, considered that the city of Sao Paulo is 10% of the population of Brazil."

Comm: "About 3/4 is methane and 1/4 is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide was being emitted by the trees that were sticking out of the water and rotting. And half the dry weight of that wood is carbon. It then becomes carbon dioxide - if it rots in the air. Now if the biomass decomposes in the bottom of the reservoir, where there's no oxygen, then it forms methane. And that has a much greater impact on the greenhouse effect. It's 21 times more impact per ton of gas than carbon dioxide.

"But during the 1990s, they, at least, discovered how to extract the more valuable timber. The saw is powered by a hydraulic cable from a motor in the boat above. The more valuable trees are so heavy they sink. But the part that was underwater has been almost perfectly preserved and fetches a good price.

"So the tree is winched up to a more bouyant log which will help it float. This is a much cheaper method than building logging roads to extract timber before a reservoir is filled.

"Eletronorte, the dam company, was constructing the 2nd power house in the year 2000. 11 new generators will soon be installed and this will nearly double the dams generating capacity to 8000 megawatts - that's about 1/7th of the U.K.'s total consumption.

"But the dam's critics question whether even the first 12 generators were a good investment.

For two thirds of their electricity has been despatched to foreign-owned aluminium factories, like ALBRAS. These factories only created about 2,000 jobs. But their contracts, for the vast amounts of electricity they use, were tied to the international price of aluminium, which dropped. So, in fact, two thirds of Tucurui's electricity has been exported, in the form of aluminium, and at a loss - according to a journalist who has studied Tucurui since it started."

Lucio Flavio Pinto: "Since 1984, we've accumulated a fantastic deficit. You could say that the energy subsidy - the difference between the tariff paid by the consumer and the cost of generating - this subsidy will have cost us, by the end of the contract in 2004, two completely new aluminium factories - around U.S. 4 billion dollars in losses."

Lucio Flavio Pinto, Agenda Amazonica, Leader of Dispossessed Farmers: "We next talked to the leader of the people flooded out, who we'd interviewed 15 years before."

Raimundo: "Originally, you were settled by the government's colonization agency?"

Lucio Flavio Pinto: "Yes."

Riamundo: "With a government title?"

Lucio Flavio Pinto: "Yes."

Raimundo: "For 100 hectares?"

Lucio Flavio Pinto: "A definitive title for 100 hectares."

Raimundo: "But after the flood you only got 50 hectares?"

Lucio Flavio Pinto: "Also they did not pay us for all the time we wasted."

Comm: "And today Eletronorte agrees."

Tenyson de Matos Andrade Production Management, Tucurui, Eletronorte Engineer: "If the company resettled the families today, it wouldn't do what it did then. Today one realises it wasn't adaquate."

"In the great reservoir of Tucurui, there are 1,600 islands. We're going to look at the proposal to make these islands into an environmental reserve. The islands were invaded by fishermen who were studied by the anthropologist, Sonia Magalhaes."

Sonia Magalhaes: "62% of the people on the islands were migrants from the lower Tocantins, below the dam. They had their traditional fishing ruined. No fish ladder was constructed with the dam, and so there was a change in the fisheries."

Fisherman: "Below the dam the catch dropped as much as 90%. But, here, in the reservoir, there was a boom in fishing."

Second male voice: "What are you fishing for?"

Fisherman: "Tucanare."

Second male voice: "Is it going well?"

Fisherman: "More or less. It's not good because they're setting out too many nets principally in this area where there are many fish."

Second male voice: "How many kilos of fish do you catch a day?"

Fisherman: "60 - 70. Some days only 30, 20."

Second male voice: "How many kilos have you got there?"

Fisherman: "Roughly 50."

Comm: "The reservoir has several ports run by fishermen's associations where 400 tons of fish are landed every month to be sold all over the surrounding region. But as the fishermen are illegal invaders of the dam company's property, they fear they could be driven out by the dam company."

Comm question (to man sorting fish): "How many kilos do you take away?"

Fisherman: "An average of 10 tons, that's two trucks."

Buyer by truck: "Yesterday, the price fell here, because there were so many fish. They filled 3 trucks."

Comm: "All this could be jeopardised if the level of the reservoir rose, as the fishermen explained at their union office."

1st fisherman (2nd male voice): "If the level went up two metres, as they've programmed it, it would be a disaster. Many would lose their farms."

Rosalino Monteiro Rodrigues, President, Fishermen's Association: "Without doubt it would have an environmental impact."

Raimundo Nonato Pereira Gama: "If it goes to the level quoted, we would lose our farm and a lot of money."

Comm: "All night, construction continues at the dam. The new generators to be installed here will obviously need more water, since each generator requires half a million litres a second. But the engineer in charge says it's not this, but operational reasons which would raise the level of the reservoir."

Alfredo Luis de Souza: "In normal circumstances, the reservoir doesn't rise above 72 metres. But a band of flexibility is needed to cushion the more significant waves of flooding. A reserve is needed - which is the difference between 72 and 74 metres so we can cushion any head of flood water that reaches the reservoir."

Alfredo Luis de Souza, Manager, Engineering Division: "Upriver, one dam already exists, 3 are under construction and 10 are planned. And Eletronorte claims that these should be able to store the extra water required without raising the level of Tucurui's reservoir. So in Brasilia, we put this to the Secretary for Amazonian Affairs."

Comm, question (to Mary Allegretti, Secretary for the Coordination of Amazonia): "In our interviews, Eletronorte says the level won't rise above 72 metres. But their literature cites 74 and 75.3 metres."

Mary Allegretti: "I will raise this point at the final conference so it's very clear. If there is a difference of interpretation between the fishermen and Eletronorte, we must consider it. It's fundamental to all the zoning planning we have done."

Comm: "Exactly. A reserve underwater is no use to anyone."

Comm: "With the President of the fishermen's union, Mary Allegretti visited one of the proposed reserves in November 2,000. The house of Bugarin, who they're visiting, is just above the reservoir's level."

Mary Allegretti: "Good day. Everything OK? It's a beautiful farm."

Bugarin: "When I settled here, there was nobody else here."

Mary Allegretti: "Your making mandioca flour today?"

Bugarin: "We make 1 or 2 tins a day."

Mary Allegretti: "So, with mandioca flour, fish and some of this fruit you can get by?"

Bugarin: "Yes."

Mary Allegretti: "There's a Brazil nut tree over there?"

Bugarin: "Yes. It's still providing nuts."

Mary Allegretti: "You eat them?"

Bugarin: "There's only this one and another in the plantation over there."

Mary Allegretti: "Can you also sell its nuts."

Bugarin: "Yes."

Mary Allegretti: "So your farm has everything - even Brazil nuts."

Mary Allegretti: "We decided that there should be 2 Sustainable Development Reserves for the people of the islands. Now we're discussing the fishing. Who can fish, where, what are the rules.

"The zoning of the lake will improve conditions for everyone. No-one will risk being expelled and we can start an economic development project, because there's an enormous wealth of fish here."

Comm: "In November 2000, at the final conference to create these reserves, the fishermen's rights and the reservoir level of 72 metres were written into the proposed laws."

Mary Allegretti: "Now we're at the decisive stage. The discussion of the draft laws for the Environmental Protection Area and the Sustainable Development Reserves.

"From Tucurui to Ararao, all this archipeligo of islands forms the Sustainable Development Reserve of Tucurui-Ararao. 300 islands with a population of 1800 to 2000 people."

Comm: "There are many things for which the dam at Tucurui can be criticised. But on the positive side, the islands and their fishermen now have a future which seems a little more secure."