Letter

Your Excellency President of the Republic of Guatemala Álvaro Colom Caballeros 6a. Avenida 4-19 zona 1 Casa Presidencial Guatemala City, Guatemala Dear Mr. President: As you are aware, in 2004 the Government of Guatemala and The Coordinating Committee of Communities Affected by the Construction of the Chixoy Dam (COCAHICH) initiated a roundtable discussion over reparations for damages inflicted on 33 communities as a result of the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam. We understand that very meaningful advances have taken place as a result of the roundtable discussions, which have an

Dear IFC Policy Review Board,This letter presents our comments on IFC's version 2 draft text changes to its Policies and Performance Standards. International Rivers has been researching and documenting the social and environmental im- pacts of dams for 25 years, working closely with other civil society organizations and local communities affected by these projects. We have also monitored the development and implementation of environmental and social standards of multilateral development banks and export credit agencies, advocating for strong policy protections for affected people and the envir

To the CDM Executive Board Martin Luther King Strasse 8 P. O. Box 260124 D-53153 Re: CDM Project Application #3237: Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project. February 7, 2011 Dear Chair of the CDM Executive Board: We are writing to you on behalf of the April 10 Movement for the Defense of the Tabasara River (M-10), Alianza para la Conservacion y el Desarrollo (ACD), Asociacion Ambientalista de Chiriqui (ASAMCHI), International Rivers, the Counter Balance coalition, and CDM Watch to express our serious concerns about the proposed CDM project involving Generadora del Istmo, S. A. (GENISA) in the Tabas

Her Excellency Madam Dilma Rousseff President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Brasília, February 8, 2011 Your Excellency, First, we congratulate your Excellency for your election as the first female president of Brazil, a fact of enormous historical importance. At the same time we, representatives of social movements that include: indigenous, riparian, farmers, quilombolas (descendants of slave communities) and other populations that inhabit the Amazon basin; representatives of the Alliance in Defense of Amazon Rivers and other civil society partners, denounce the serious errors in th

Submitted to Spanish Association for Standardisation and CertificationLa Yesca is a business-as-usual dam project that has already secured almost a billion dollars in project financing, is nearing the final stages of construction, and in no way requires – and has never been dependent upon – CDM income to be completed. It is therefore non-additional. It should not be validated for the CDM. The project developer, the public utility CFE, has clearly long been aware of the possibility of obtaining CDM income for La Yesca and its other low carbon projects. As the PDD states, this potential inco

Mr. Jac Nasser Chairman BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc RE: Proposed BHP Billiton smelter and Inga 3 in Democratic Republic of Congo Dear Mr. Nasser, We wish to bring your attention to the adverse impacts of BHP Billiton’s ongoing negotiations with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a $5 billion aluminum smelter near the port of Banana on the Atlantic Coast to be powered by the proposed Inga 3 hydropower scheme. In one of the world’s poorest and most corrupt countries, this purely commercial venture is set to reinforce existing poverty. Without due

34 civil society groups and individuals from 18 countries have written to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank this week calling on the Banks to take immediate action to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the affected communities. Some of the issues raised by the groups include: People on the Nakai Plateau still have no means for a sustainable livelihood, threatening their food security, as poor quality land in the resettlement sites continues to cause problems for villagers’ agriculture, the long-term production of the reservoir fisheries is in doubt, and outsiders are encroaching on

MINISTÉRIO PÚBLICO FEDERAL Procuradoria da República no Município de Altamira/PA Recomendação n° 0412010-GAB2 Recommendation that IBAMA not grant an installation license for the Belo Monte Complex given that none of the 40 conditions of the Provisional License have been met by Norte Energia, S.A.

(This is part of ongoing correspondence on this topic) 14 September 2010 To: Brian Dames, Chief Executive Officer, Eskom By e-mail: brian.dames@eskom.co.za CC:  President of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma (president@po.gov.za)        President of Mozambique, Mr Armando Guebuza by  (www.presidencia.gov.mz) Dear Mr. Dames: We appreciate the time taken to reply to our letter on the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam, and hope that we can continue to keep the lines of communication open. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that all of our concerns will be resolved by the EIA process alone, and even more

International Rivers and Mekong Watch write this letter to send our comments and recommendations on the Update on the Lao PDR: Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project (NT2) dated July 7, 2010. We agree that “many of the key challenges still lie ahead” on this project. However, we have different observations on the issues we raised in this letter and still believe that NT2 is not compliant with the Concession Agreement, the World Bank’s Safeguard Policy on Resettlement, and the Prime Minister’s Decree on the Compensation and Resettlement of the Development Project. Thus, we would like the W