Rio internacional da Pan-Amazônia: democracia ambiental na governança das águas do Rio Mamoré

Abstract

At present, you see the following question as a problem: how to ensure the participation rights of non-state subjects in the decisions of use of the Mamoré River, aiming at the governance and safety of its waters in face of the social and environmental risks of the existing development project? The hypothetical-deductive method was used and the general objective was to analyze the water crisis, in the context of the global environmental crisis and the international rivers of the Pan-Amazônia, and the environmental democracy in the government of the waters in accordance with the Escazú Agreement. It was endowed with the following specific objectives: 1) to study the environmental complexity and the hydric crisis from the perspective of international rivers; 2) verify the Rights of the uses of the international rivers and certain decisions on conflicts of use of transboundary waters; 3) Assess environmental democracy in the governance of the waters of international rivers in the Pan-Amazônia; and 4) analyze how the Escazú Agreement can contribute to guarantee environmental democracy in decisions on the use of the waters of the Mamoré River in the face of the planned binational hydroelectric plant to integrate the Madeira River Complex. Given the complexity of the subject, it was endowed with methodological theoretical pluralism, using the environmental complexity theories of Morin (2015) and the risk society of Beck (2000; 2011), in that despite the responsibility of humanity for its own existence and It gives nature, as well as the essentiality of water for life. The study is bibliographical and documentary, with access to international conventions, multilateral treaties and agreements, international arbitration decisions, ICJ judges, IACHR jurisprudence, reports from international organizations, scientific publications and environmental licensing documents from Santo Antônio and Jirau hydroelectric plants in operation in Madeira River Complex. Four chapters were presented, which we discuss about: the effects of the water crisis on the available water courses; o strategic value of the waters of the international rivers; the main regulations of the International Water Law; to the relevance of the government and security of the waters to mitigate socio-environmental damage; to insufficient IWRM in Pan-Amazônia; and the importance of the access rights established in the Escazú Agreement linked to the threefold information-participation-justice to instrumentalize the local forces of the region in defense of the environment. Therefore, it is essential to establish an institutional articulation between Brazil and Bolivia capable of jointly managing, with equity and reasonableness, the divided waters of the Mamoré River and ensuring environmental democracy in decisions related to the binational hydroelectric development project. What depends on: the strengthening of common interests and the establishment of development sources; the creation of the Basin Committees of each State and of the Community Organization for interstate institutional articulation, with the active presence of members of civil society; and the effectiveness of the Escazú Agreement, which has been ratified by Bolivia, but still depends on the election of the popular representatives and the operation of the Support Committee for Application and Compliance, scheduled for 2023.