The Itaipu industrial complex: Authoritarian terraforming, conservation, and green heritage in Paraguay

Abstract

In this paper I examine the Itaipu Dam in Paraguay as an industrial heritage complex comprising energy infrastructure, environmental governance, and conservation landscapes. Through the submergence of the Guairá Falls and the displacement of Avá Guaraní communities, I argue that the dam exemplifies “authoritarian terraforming,” the large-scale remaking of landscapes and lifeworlds as part of state-led development. Within this context, I introduce the concept of “green heritage” to analyze how ecological destruction and territorial dispossession are reframed through conservation initiatives that operate as post-extractive governance regimes legitimizing infrastructural violence while producing curated forms of ecological peace. Finally, I show how Indigenous territorial ontologies expose the limits of conservation framed as repair and caution against forms of conservation that reproduce exclusion and dispossession.