Belo Monte Dam is a controversial mega dam being built in the Amazon on Indigenous land. The old project conceived during the military dictatorship (1964-1985), and which was revived by the Lula government, is the bête noire of Brazilian environmentalists due to the damage it will cause to a pristine region in the Amazon. It will pave the way to tens of other dams in (more…)

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 77 percent from 2004 to 2011, but carbon emissions did not drop as steeply because of complex processes revealed during on-the-ground studies, scientists say.

While analysis of satellite images showed the three- (more…)

A Brazilian judge has ordered a suspension of the controversial Belo Monte dam project, saying that local indigenous people who will be affected by the massive hydroelectric project were not sufficiently consulted during the environmental assessment process.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, Judge Souza Prudente of (more…)

Recent policies enacted by the Brazilian government — including changes to its Forest Code and a push to build 30 new dams in the Amazon region — threaten to undermine critical environmental progress made by the nation over the last two decades, scientists say.

In a declaration published after its annual meeting (more…)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed critical revisions to the nation’s Forest Code that environmental advocates said would lead to rampant deforestation of the Amazon.

Speaking to reporters, government officials said Rousseff had vetoed 12 of the 84 articles in (more…)

U.S. car makers such as General Motors, Ford, and Nissan are purchasing steel made from pig iron that is smelted using large amounts of illegally logged timber from the Amazon rainforest, according to a two-year investigation by Greenpeace.

The environmental group also said that the pig iron (more…)

Google last week expanded its popular Street View feature to the forests of the Amazon basin, posting more than 50,000 photos that allow online users a virtual tour of the world’s largest tropical region.

The photos, taken last summer in the Rio Negro Reserve, provide a panoramic view of tropical forest (more…)

A drought that affected large areas of the Amazon rainforest in 2010 triggered the release of about 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than the total annual CO2 emissions of India, according to a new study.

After combining a NASA carbon cycle simulation (more…)

After years of fierce opposition and heated debates, the Brazilian government won the arm wrestling contest and is pushing ahead with the building of the Belo Monte Dam. The dam is expected to generate 11,200 MW of hydroelectric power when it’s completed in 2019 and will cost US$11 billion. (more…)

Belo Monte, the $10bn mega dam the Brazilian government wants to build in the Amazon, continues on its controversial path, including legal suits and protests against it.

The idea for Belo Monte goes back 30 years when the country was still under a military dictatorship, but local resistance so (more…)