What difference would dams on the Patuca River make? For Miskitu leader Norvin Goff, the answer is stark and clear: “Dams on the Patuca River mean ecocide and homicide.” 

Why ecocide?

Dams in the Moskitia tropical rainforest would decimate this richly diverse ecosystem both directly and indirectly.  In the river, fish species that migrate upstream from the ocean during part of their life cycle would be blocked by the dams, threatening local extinctions. Downstream from the dam, the river’s volume, flow, and temperature would change, altering the habitats of shellfish, reptiles, amphibians, plants, and bird species. Upstream, the reservoirs would submerge rainforest vegetation, soils, and organic matter, which would emit greenhouse gases as they rot. Reservoirs in the tropics produce high amounts of methane and carbon dioxide, accelerating global warming. The reservoirs and a network of roads would obstruct the migration patterns of hundreds of rainforest species. In the Moskitia, this includes endangered species like jaguars and tapirs, whose survival depends on large territories. 

Why homicide? 

Indigenous villagers who live along the Patuca’s banks depend on the river for their lives and livelihoods. It is their only means of transportation and communication through the vast, roadless Moskitia. Dams would obstruct commerce and trade for thousands of people. On stretches of river between the dams, the flows, currents, and channels would be altered; people whose knowledge of the Patuca has sustained  them for centuries would no longer master the river. Fish would disappear. Flood cycles that regularly wash nutrients over their agricultural lands would be changed. And road construction would open their forests to an unstoppable invasion of loggers, poachers, ranchers, and drug smugglers. The government plans to build a military base to protect the construction project. “These impacts will be fatal for the survival of the Tawahka as a unique people,” says their elected leader, Lorenzo Tinglas.

As an endorser of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, Honduras officially recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects that would affect them. But the Indigenous Peoples of the Moskitia have not been consulted and they have not consented to dam construction on the Patuca River. An international outcry is needed to defend their rights and to prevent destruction of a world-renowned tropical rainforest.

Please answer the call of the united Indigenous Peoples of the Moskitia : tell the Honduran government you stand with them against construction of the Patuca III dam. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP 

• Background information
• Write a letter
• Send an Email
• Youth Action Alert
  
• Maps/Mapas
• Alerta en Español
  
• Ejemplo de Carta
• Mandar un Correo

Watch the following video produced by National Geographic, International Rivers, and Friends of the Earth on how dams are not the answer for clean energy in this era of climate change:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8JtoednlbY&feature=player_embedded#!

Read More:

CSQ: Winter, 2011  
CSQ: Winter, 1990 "The Tawahka Sumu: A Delicate Balance in Mosquitia"
CSQ: Fall 1994 "Regional Environmental Commission Established in Honduran Mosquitia"

Photo Credit: Danielle DeLuca,  Kendra McSweeney