By Ana Mano
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld the suspension pending studies of a government plan to reduce a forest conservation park in the Amazon to allow for the building of a controversial railway to carry grains to northern ports.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in a ruling announced late on Wednesday, maintained the suspension of a 2017 decree that had authorized the reduction in the size of the Jamanxim National Forest, where the federal government had planned for the railroad to pass, according to a copy of the ruling.
The railway, which stretches almost 1,000 kilometer (621.37 miles) and is considered strategic to move soybeans and corn more efficiently to export markets, would reduce reliance on roads but also affect local communities in northern Brazilian states like Mato Grosso and Para.
Indigenous Kayapo communities who live near the park welcomed the decision after demonstrators at the court on Wednesday carried signs urging it to declare the decree unconstitutional and consult with indigenous communities.
A lawyer for the Kayapo, Melillo Dinis, said the ruling was a victory for the indigenous communities because they had not been consulted on the railway project and new studies would take into account the impact on their lives.
“From now on these studies should be carried out in a serious and socio-environmentally committed way,” he told Reuters.
The decision restores the original boundaries of the Jamanxim area, said Andre Maimoni, the attorney for PSOL, a leftist political party that brought the case before the Supreme Court, asking it to rule against the decree.
Speaking by phone, the lawyer said the government would now be expected to seek formal congressional approval if it decides to move forward with the railroad project, and it passes through conservation areas and impacts Indigenous territories.
“Moraes’ decision can be considered a victory, as it maintains the minimum requirements for approval of a large project like Ferrograo in terms of obtaining environmental licenses and respecting the rights of the communities affected by it,” Maimoni said.
(Reporting by Ana Mano in Sao Paulo and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
