Giant dam threatens Brazilian rainforest

摘要

Brazil's rainforest is under further threat from plans to build a giant hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon River in Para state. Plans for the dam, known as Belo Monte, have been approved by the environment agency. These come on top of pending changes to the Brazilian Forest Code that could allow deforestation of up to 20 million hectares of rainforest (Nature 476,259-260; 2011).