Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visits the construction site of the Belo Monte Dam, 2014. Photo by Ichiro Guerra/Sala de Imprensa licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license
By Glenn Scherer, Mongabay, January 17, 2016
In another turn in the ongoing law suit over construction of the Belo Monte dam in Brazil, a district federal court ruled on November 9th that Indigenous Peoples who oppose construction of the dam on the Xingu river do not have the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent on the project because it is not located on their traditional territory. This decision contradicts the Brazilian Constitution as well as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, both of which Brazil has endorsed.
On October 17, 2011, a Brazilian federal judge ruled that the controversial Belo Monte Dam licenses are illegal and should be revoked since the Brazilian government did not hold proper consultations with Indigenous communities that would be affected by the project.
A Brazilian judge brought construction of the Belo Monte Dam project to a halt last week as he ruled in favor of environmental activists to protect fish species and the Indigenous people who depend on them for food and livelihoods.
In April of 2001, Global Response launched a campaign to stop the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in Brazil. Now, ten years later, after major international protest, the dam has received it's final approval and will soon begin construction.
We, indigenous peoples Juruna, Xipaya, Arara of the Volta Grande, Kuruaia and Xicrin of the region of Altamira, Guajajara, Gavião, Krikati, Awa Guajá, Kayapo of Mato Grosso and Pará, Tembé, Aikeora, Suruí, Xavante, Karintiana, Puruborá, Kassupá, Wajãpi, Karajá, Apurinã, Makuxi, Nawa of Acre, Mura from Amazonas, Tupaiu, Borari, Tapuia, Arapiuns, Pataxó, Tupiniquim, Javaé, Kaingang, Xucuru, Marubu, Maiuruna and Mundukuru from the states of Amazonas and Pará and from the other states of the Amazon region and Brazil, farmers and riverine peoples
* Brazil agency OKs start-up of huge dam in Amazon
* Consortium has go-ahead to clear forest, start site
SAO PAULO, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Brazil's environment agency approved on Wednesday the start-up of the Belo Monte power dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists.
The agency, Ibama, issued licenses to the consortium in charge of Belo Monte to start the construction site and to clear 238.1 hectares (588 acres) of forest land, about the size of Monaco.
On November 11th, international and Brazilian human rights organizations filed a formal petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to stop the construction of Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The petition urgently calls on the commission to adopt "precautionary measures" that would put pressure on the Brazilian government to halt plans to build the dam, planned to be the world's third largest.
Cultural Survival congratulates new Right Livelihood Award winners Nnimmo Bassey and Erwin Krautler, both lifelong champions for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and environmental protection. Bassey, a Nigerian poet/environmentalist, and Krautler, a Brazilian Catholic bishop, are two of four recipients of this year’s award, which is widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” The Right Livelihood Award honors and supports those "offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." There are now 141 Laureates from 59 countries.
After decades of protests and battles, the proposed hydroelectric Belo Monte Dam was given written approval by Brazil’s president President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The dam is to surpass the Three Gorges Dam in China in size and volume. The hydroelectric project on the mouth of the Xingu River will devastate vast regions and ecosystems in the Amazonian state of Para and displace more than 50,000 Indigenous people.
Between August 9th and 12th of 2010, over 400 Indigenous and riverine people, victims of dams, and farmers from the Amazon region gathered at the port of the city of Altamira, Pará, Brazil at the riverside of the Xingu river, to discuss the impacts of major infrastructure projects in the Amazon region, with emphasis on the Belo Monte dam.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The indigenous leaders had a plan. They would unite for a last, desperate stand against the mammoth dam threatening their lands in the Amazon, vowing to give their lives, if necessary, to prevent it from being built.
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