Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the 2016 cancellation of São Luiz do Tapajós dam in Brazil. It demonstrates the difficulties in separating this decision from the shifting political context in which it was made and that, as a result, the end of the project does not represent the end of the battle against it.

Paper long abstract:

In August 2016, the construction of the São Luiz do Tapajós dam in Brazil was cancelled. This paper will explore this decision by assessing interviews with figures drawn from political and civil society - including those who made the decision itself - to gauge the numerous understandings of the reasons behind this decision and its wider significance for hydropower in the Brazilian Amazon. This paper has found that many locate the cancellation of the project within a specific transformation of the political context in which dams are built in Brazil. This context involves claims of widespread corruption in the construction industry, the entrenchment of a financial crisis, and a controversial transition of presidential power.

Furthermore, it will be argued that it is such a contextual political understanding of the cancellation of the São Luiz do Tapajós complex that results in the celebrations of the opposition movement being short-lived. Although the movement against this project had been successful in its efforts to re-articulate the project and counter the pro-dam claims that surrounded it, many opposition actors continue to assert that the Tapajós project will, one day, return.

Despite a victory that was celebrated in many other nations, Brazilian activists turned to each other to ask what does it mean to win? The answer to this question, explored in this paper, demonstrates a continued focus on the future, a belief that this "golden moment" will pass, and that the battle is not yet over.