A/HRC/33/42/Add.1 B. Tapajós dam complex and São Luiz do Tapajos dam 47. According to information provided to the Special Rapporteur, there are 10 indigenous peoples in 118 villages in the Tapajós River basin, an area extraordinarily rich in animal and plant biodiversity. The Munduruku, who number around 13,000 people, is the largest group, and the presence of isolated peoples has also been documented in the Tapajós region. 48. Munduruku representatives with whom the Special Rapporteur met described the sacredness of the river, forests and resources. They explained that they were now living under a constant threat as a result of the Tapajós project, but emphasized their unity in their struggle to protect their territory and prevent its destruction. In order to facilitate meaningful consultations, they developed a consultation protocol which they presented to the Government in January 2015; they have not yet received any response. Instead of culturally appropriate prior consultations, individual households had allegedly been approached by a consulting firm employed by Grupo de Estudo Tapajós and offered compensation to abandon their opposition and debilitate indigenous collective decisionmaking in relation to the project. As in other projects, so-called public hearings were being conflated with the State duty to consult indigenous peoples. In addition, concerns had been expressed on the use of security forces to intimidate the Munduruku and other indigenous peoples opposed to the project. 49. Extensive documentation was provided to the Special Rapporteur alleging violations of indigenous peoples’ rights in the context of the Tapajós dam complex. In addition to the absence of good faith consultations to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the affected peoples were the failure to demarcate indigenous lands affected by the project and the conduct of inadequate environmental and social impact assessments after political decisions regarding the dams had been taken. These assessments are reported to have grossly underestimated the impacts on indigenous peoples’ rights and the risks associated with the dams and ignored the unique relationship that indigenous peoples have with their territories, upon which their cultural and physical survival depends. 50. There also appears to be a lack of a cumulative impact analysis of dam cascades at the river basin level and the associated impacts on indigenous peoples’ livelihoods. The necessary mitigation and compensation measures have reportedly not been adequately costed, rendering the economic viability studies unreliable and posing further threats to the well-being of the indigenous peoples. 51. The Tapajós complex facilitates a number of other activities that impact directly on indigenous peoples’ rights, including illegal mining (garimpo) and logging activities and the construction of roads and ports. Logging concessions in the Itaituba II national forest, which overlaps the Sawré Muybu indigenous land, and the Crepori national forest, which impacts Munduruku lands, were issued by the Ministry of the Environment without prior consultation. The Public Prosecutor has opened legal cases regarding these concessions and obtained favourable preliminary decisions, but a significant risk of further logging remains. 52. As was the case in the Belo Monte project, cases filed by the Public Prosecutor addressing human right violations of the Tapajós complex have been subject to the security suspension mechanism, thus rendering ineffective another judicial decision affirming that consultation with indigenous peoples had to take place prior to granting an operating licence for the dam. 53. Following the visit by the Special Rapporteur, in April 2016, the then Government took a number of steps to protect the rights of the Munduruku. This included initiating the demarcation of Sawré Muybu territory and suspending the licensing procedure of the 12