ISS008-E-12372 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
The future development of the Bíobío River is a point of intense debate among Chileans, and has been called Chile’s “defining environmental issue.” Over a million people use the resources of the river. Controversial issues include ecological damage from the reservoirs, impacts to native peoples, and international financing and accountability. One of the planned dams upstream from Pangue, the Ralco, would require relocation of indigenous peoples who still maintain traditional lifestyles and affect temperate rainforest. A Chilean activist, Juan Pablo Orrego, won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1997 for his work to preserve the natural environment around the Bíobío.
In May 2003, a Santiago court ruling allowed construction of the Ralco Dam to continue, but prohibited flooding the area occupied by the indigenous people. Upstream from the Pangue Reservoir (to the right in the image), the cleared areas associated with earth moving and construction of the Ralco Dam are visible. The straight white lines in cleared forest between the two dams probably represent power transmission lines.
