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Damming Amazon Rivers: Environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams on Brazil’s Madeira River according to local fishers’ perception

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the environmental impacts generated by the hydroelectric complex in the Madeira River, Brazilian Amazon, based on the perceptions of local fishers and fishery database, it focus attention on three main impacts: (i) on local fishery stocks; (ii) in fish fauna and (iii) on the aquatic ecosystems. The local fishers were selected through the “snowball” approach for the application of semi-structured interviews. All the local fishers confirmed having perceived a decline in fishery productivity following the impounding of the Madeira River. Changes in the condition of the fish were also perceived by the local fishers, including exophthalmia (82%), a reduction in the weight or length of the fish (25%), and irregular breeding patterns (14%). In the case of impacts on the river, changes in the hydrological cycle were the process remembered most frequently (75%). The results elucidated a range of environmental impacts caused by the hydroelectric dams of the Madeira River.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support, the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo de Vida Silvestre at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais for academic support. We also thank the fishers of the Z-31 fisher colony and their families for their collaboration during the development of this study and by supply in the data analysed here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Avenida Antônio Carlos, 6627, Bairro Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Rangel Eduardo Santos & Maria Auxiliadora Drumond

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografia, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Praça Frei Orlando, 170, Centro, São João del-Rei, MG, 36307-352, Brazil

    Ricardo Motta Pinto-Coelho

  3. Curso de Engenharia Florestal, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Rodrigo Otávio, 6200 - Setor Sul, Coroado, Manaus, AM, 69080-900, Brazil

    Rogério Fonseca

  4. Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia (UFSB), Rodovia Porto Seguro, BR367- Km10, Porto Seguro, BA, 45613-204, Brazil

    Fabrício Berton Zanchi

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  1. Rangel Eduardo Santos
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  2. Ricardo Motta Pinto-Coelho
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  3. Maria Auxiliadora Drumond
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  4. Rogério Fonseca
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Correspondence to Rangel Eduardo Santos.

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Santos, R.E., Pinto-Coelho, R.M., Drumond, M.A. et al. Damming Amazon Rivers: Environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams on Brazil’s Madeira River according to local fishers’ perception. Ambio 49, 1612–1628 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01316-w

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