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One of Chile's last true pristine and intact wildernesses is to be dammed and logged to provide hydroelectricity. The dams -- two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua River -- would irretrievably damage Patagonia, one of the Earth's wildest and most beautiful places. The Pascua takes melt water from the Patagonian ice field, the largest expanse of permanent ice outside Antarctica and Greenland, through steep granite valleys to fjords along the southern coastline. Shockingly, the main Chilean project proponent does extensive business with U.S. mega-corp Home Depot, broadly perceived as being "green".

The HidroAysén project will flood river valleys containing several thousand hectares of ancient primary forests. The project's transmission line would require extensive clearcutting of additional pristine Chilean native forests, clearing more than a 1,500-mile swath that will impact fourteen national parks and wilderness reserves. This flooding and logging will destroy biodiverse temperate forests along with their endemic trees and habitat for the rare torrent duck, river otter, culpeo fox, and the endangered huemul Andean deer.

HidroAysén is proposed by Endesa Chile, formerly state-owned and now under Italian and Spanish ownership, and is designed to alleviate Chile's energy shortage. Chile desperately needs new energy sources, yet building large-scale hydroelectric dams is an antiquated way to obtain energy, based upon ecological destruction for unfettered economic growth. Chile must pursue renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal power or face spiraling economic and ecological decline. Most of the electricity generated by the project would go to mining and industry and would open Patagonia to wide-scale industrialization.

Endesa has partnered with the Matte Group which includes CMPC, one of Chile's biggest wood and pulp producers. The Matte Group through part ownership of Colbún electricity company is the controlling Chilean interest of HidroAysén and is aggressively advocating for the proposed dams. Home Depot, the giant U.S. home product business that enjoys a reputation for environmental responsibility, is Matte/CMPC's biggest customer in the US and the Matte Group also supports the Home Depot Foundation. This relationship resulted from a previous environmental campaign whereby Matte/CMPC made widely publicized, written commitments to protect Chilean forests, yet now Matte is promoting and investing in these forest destroying dams with Home Depot's complicity.

Chile's National Environmental Commission is yet to approve an environmental impact study carried out by Endesa, and many other groups are working on ensuring it is not approved. In consultation with International Rivers, Ecological Internet is working to get Matte to withdraw from the project by highlighting their business interests with Home Depot. Please challenge Home Depot to live up to their green image and refuse to participate in the greenwashing of Patagonian wild river and ancient forest destruction. Insist Home Depot cease doing business with Matte until they withdraw from HidroAysén.

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