A/HRC/11/11 page 12 43. The Hydrocarbons Act has been developed through recent specific regulations on consultation and socio-environmental oversight, which are recognized in customary law and in the internal forms of organization of the communities. Henceforth, environmental impact evaluation studies will be required to address a project’s social, economic and cultural implications for the indigenous peoples in the territories, as well as to make specific proposals for preventive and remedial environmental action. It remains to be seen how this new legal framework will be implemented in practice and what effect it will have on the many existing resource exploration and extraction projects. 44. Of particular concern is a project to build a hydroelectric dam complex on the Brazilian side of the Madeira River that will impact the river basin as the Madeira passes through Bolivia. The project provides for the construction of four dams: two on the Brazilian side, one between the two countries and one on the Bolivian side. There are fears that the project will increase reservoir sedimentation and, along the binational section of the Madeira, raise its water level and that of its tributaries, with highly adverse effects on fish stocks and other resources crucial to the subsistence economy of the indigenous communities in the departments of Pando and Beni, and flood agricultural lands and pastures, resulting in the forced expulsion of the communities and an increase in malaria and other diseases. There are also fears for the survival of the Pacahuara communities living in isolated areas near the Brazilian border, and mention has been made of the negative impact on the local indigenous population that other similar projects, such as the El Bala project on the Beni River, could have. 45. A number of demonstrations, particularly the one organized in Cochabamba in 2000, have resulted in changes to regulations concerning the ownership and distribution of water in Bolivia. In the case of Cochabamba, the cancellation of a distribution contract awarded to a transnational enterprise prevented a drastic increase in rates and allowed unhampered access to irrigation water by the indigenous and peasant communities to be maintained. Bolivian water legislation recognizes the right of indigenous communities to traditional use and has become a model for other countries in the region. E. Highly vulnerable peoples 46. The Yuqui people are among the most vulnerable indigenous groups. In 1959, contact was established with them for the first time, and in 1969, they were transferred to a mission encampment by the American evangelical organization, New Tribes Mission. Beginning in the 1980s, reports began to mount of Yuqui massacres at the hands of settlers, ill-treatment and forced religious conversion by the Evangelical mission and numerous epidemics of tuberculosis, pulmonary mycosis and other diseases. Following a number of other sporadic contacts, in the 1980s, and with the consent of the Government, members of the Yuqui people were gradually transferred to the Bia/Recuaté Community on the Chimoré River, where they were awarded a Yuqui TCO. In 2004, the Yuqui joined the Ichilo River Indigenous Council (CIRI) in a multi-ethnic territory located in the department of Cochabamba. The Yuqui population, which is estimated to total between 200 and 230 persons, is continually subjected to territorial pressure from settlements, indigenous communities in the adjacent TCO and logging companies involved in the extraction of forest timber.