Brazilian government agencies and the consortium building the US$13-billion Belo Monte dam have failed to take numerous steps required of them to minimize the massive, 11,283-megawatt project’s impact on nearby Amazon tribes, says the nonprofit Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA). All but four of the 19 tribal-protection conditions required under the dam’s licensing remain unaddressed in whole or in part by project stakeholders, says the Feb. 19 report by ISA, a respected Brazilian environmental group. Those stakeholders include government bodies such as the National Indian Agency (Funai) and ICMBio—the arm of the Environment Ministry that creates and maintains federally protected areas—as well as the dam consortium, which is called Norte Energia (NESA) and is led by the federal electricity holding company Eletrobras. Ibama, the licensing and enforcement arm of the Environment Ministry, set the conditions when it issued Belo Monte’s preliminary and construction licenses in... [Log in to read more]