Brazil’s Supreme Court forms majority to validate the Ferrogrão law and the reduction of the Jamanxim National Park.

THE Supreme Federal Court (STF) A majority was formed this Thursday (21) to validate the law related to Ferrogrão, a railway planned for more than a decade to connect the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. The ministers understood that there was no irregularity in the measure approved by the National Congress that reduced part of the area of the Jamanxim National Park to enable the passage of the railway and sections of the BR-163. The judgment was resumed after a request for review by Minister Flávio Dino. In his vote, Dino stated that the reduction of the protected area corresponds to only 0.054% of the park and highlighted that there is a provision for environmental compensation with the expansion of preserved areas larger than the suppressed area. The minister also proposed that the decision make it explicit that the judgment does not represent prior authorization for the construction of the railway. “It is not being judged at this moment whether the railway should or should not be built. Nor is it authorizing licensing or validating technical studies,” said Dino. The case's rapporteur, Alexandre de Moraes, had previously voted in favor of the constitutionality of the measure, stating that he did not identify any environmental risk or illegality in the text approved by Congress. Ministers Luís Roberto Barroso, Cristiano Zanin, André Mendonça, Kassio Nunes Marques, Luiz Fux, and Dias Toffoli also concurred with the rapporteur.

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.