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Good news! A judge in Brazil just suspended the Belo Monte Dam!

Yesterday a Federal Court ordered the suspension of Belo Monte's provisional environmental license and the cancellation of next Tuesday's bidding process in response to an action filed by Brazil's Federal Attorneys. This is a huge victory for the campaign.

Read my new blog for a full update on Belo Monte Dam.

This is just the most recent in a series of positive events in the past couple of weeks for the campaign to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon's Xingu River.

Last Monday, James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver lent their star power to the campaign, joining a protest of more than 700 dam-affected and indigenous people in Brasilia to demand cancellation of Belo Monte. James Cameron said he was being "drawn into a situation where a real-life Avatar confrontation is in progress. What's happening in Avatar is happening in Brazil and places like India and China, where traditional villages are displaced by big infrastructure projects."

Read my blog to learn more and see photos from the protest.

As sure as the Xingu is flowing, momentum is building in the campaign. Thanks for your continued support. We'll let you know soon how you can help keep the Xingu River flowing freely.

davidkozak wrote:I just saw a short story on today's news saying exactly the opposite.

MatsP wrote: Yes, the next level up federal court overruled the judgement of the lower federal court.

The fact that it makes the news is a good thing.

MatsP wrote:The lower court said "Stop, you haven't done your impact analysis correctly" and the higher court said "No, don't stop, it's important that we continue for the economy".

It's a good thing it got stopped, even if the higher court said to go ahead, because it increases the level of doubt for a construction company - it may well be that an even higher level court agrees with the one at the lower level - or another judge, in a different matter gets some technicality that can't be ignored to stop the project.

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Mats

MatsP wrote:The lower court said "Stop, you haven't done your impact analysis correctly" and the higher court said "No, don't stop, it's important that we continue for the economy".

DJ-don wrote:

MatsP wrote:The lower court said "Stop, you haven't done your impact analysis correctly" and the higher court said "No, don't stop, it's important that we continue for the economy".

It's a good thing it got stopped, even if the higher court said to go ahead, because it increases the level of doubt for a construction company - it may well be that an even higher level court agrees with the one at the lower level - or another judge, in a different matter gets some technicality that can't be ignored to stop the project.

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Mats

Ahh ok that makes so much sense now!!

btw how many "courts" are there in brazil?

Suckermouth wrote: I think the lower court was for the state while the higher court was for the country (ie. in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia). Thus I assume Brazil has a court in each state at least.

Mike Noren wrote:It's interesting that these news stories never, even in passing, mention the endemic species likely to go extinct - I'd say it's a direct result of the lack of a species list and, IMO, the intentional lack of knowledge of aquatic biodiversity of these rivers.

racoll wrote:

Mike Noren wrote:Seeing as we seem to be the only people aware of this, how can we get the word circulated? Now seems like the appropriate time.

Is there even a ballpark list of morphospecies?

Mike_Noren wrote:It's interesting that these news stories never, even in passing, mention the endemic species likely to go extinct - I'd say it's a direct result of the lack of a species list and, IMO, the intentional lack of knowledge of aquatic biodiversity of these rivers.

And then last night, at the 11th hour, a new injunction was issued and the auction delayed again! Still, the Brazilian government is trying to push through their plan to auction the Belo Monte Dam project to private investors as early as this afternoon. All over Brazil, thousands of people are in the streets today protesting against the project.

If it must, Brazil will build Belo Monte dam alone
Thu Apr 8, 2010 8:57pm BST

BRASILIA, April 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's government will itself build the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon region if no private firms bid for the project, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday.

The 11,000 megawatt dam, to be constructed on the Xingu River in the state of Para, is expected to cost around 20 billion reais ($11.2 billion). It would be the world's third-biggest power plant and help Brazil meet soaring energy demand.

Two major local infrastructure companies said on Wednesday they would not take part in bidding for the construction of the giant dam in the Amazon rain forest, because it was not financially viable under the conditions of the auction. [ID:nN07140630]

But Lula told reporters on Thursday the government would press ahead with the project, with or without a private company to take it on.

"It's important to be loud and clear about this -- we will build Belo Monte with or without them," he said. (Reporting by Natuza Nery; Writing by Peter Murphy; Editing by Raymond Colitt and Jim Marshall)

Janne wrote:And all it's about is the government's prestige.