Court ruling suspends work on Brazil’s Belo Monte dam

Efforts to block construction of the mammoth R$26 billion (US$12.8 billion), 11,233-megawatt Belo Monte dam in Brazil’s eastern Amazon state of Pará gained some traction this month when an appeals court ordered the work suspended because indigenous peoples were not consulted on the project. The Aug. 6 ruling, which did indeed prompt work on the dam to halt, will likely be reviewed by the country’s Supreme Court, says Felício Pontes, a Pará state federal prosecutor. It was Pontes who filed the suit that prompted this month’s unanimous decision by the appeals court, a three-member panel of the Brasília-based First Regional Court of Justice (TRT). The court opined that the lack of consultation with indigenous groups made the dam project unconstitutional... [Log in to read more]

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