The Quest for Environmental Knowledge: Biologists, Dam-Building and Environmentalism in the Brazilian Amazon

In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazil built several large dams in the Amazon rainforest and contracted the National Institute for Research of the Amazon (INPA) to study their environmental impact. The article explores the activities of INPA’s biologists and their role in the changing perception of dam-building. Based on INPA publications and archival material about dam-related conflicts it argues that science had little impact on the discursive paradigm shift from good to bad dams and that ‘hard’ science did not have more epistemic power than local grassroots knowledge produced by the anti-dam movement. The data gathered by the biologists had no practical value and could not prevent environmental damage. When the dictatorship ended in 1985, INPA changed sides and promoted the anti-dam agenda. What finally mattered was the ability to connect science to a political narrative.