Dams in Patagonia - Bad Choice for Italy's Enel

A giant Italian company, Enel, owns a controlling interest in the parent companies of Endesa Chile, the European partner for the Patagonian dam scheme called HidroAysén.

The dams would displace families, disrupt livelihoods, thwart local tourism businesses and destroy thousands of acres of rare and endangered Chilean forests. The transmission lines for this hydroelectricity would provide no benefits to local communities, but would require extensive clearcutting of Chilean native forests. It would be one of the world's longest transmission lines to date, clearing a more than 2,450 km swath through national parks and wilderness reserves. All of this destruction would threaten aquatic, bird and mammal species already at risk. Species such as an endangered Chilean deer  - the huemul - of which less than 3,000 survive today.

At a time when Enel is trying to build a positive image for itself internationally, please join our online action to persuade this parent of HidroAysén that dams and transmission lines in Patagonia would be a very bad choice for Enel.