Justiça orders to stop works of installation of zip line in Pão de Açúcar

The Federal Justice of Rio de Janeiro determined in the fifth fair (1st) to halt the work for the installation of a zip line in the hills of Pão de Açúcar and Urca, in the southern zone of the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

The Judiciary responds to a request to eliminate a public civil action prosecuted by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) against the company Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, which also operates the bus and, since last year, has been carrying out works to install a zip line, with an expected length of 755 meters and a descent speed of up to 100 km/h.

According to the MPF, between September 15, 2022 and January 17, 2023, the operating company of the bondinho cut 127.83 cubic meters of rocks from the Pão de Açúcar and Urca hills without authorization under the consent of the Instituto do Patrimonio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (Iphan), with the commercial objective of installing a zip line between these hills.

The MPF also affirms that, on February 6, 2023, instead of administratively seizing and authorizing the company, the Iphan authorized the continuation of the works, becoming, with it, responsible for the damages caused to the landscape and geological heritage.

A judicial decision orders that the company immediately refrain from promoting cuts or perfurações in the rock or executing any intervention in the hills of Pão de Açúcar, Urca and Babilônia that implies demolition or construction of new elements or even construction of a building on empty land, under penalty of fine.

The action proposed by the Attorney General of the Republic Sergio Gardenghi Suiama, or MPF also requests that the company present a plan for the recovery of the degraded area for the works and the proposal of the Director’s Plan for the entire area subject to the concession of use, prohibiting any expansion of the built area or Modification of two uses recognized when the federal tomb and the granting of the Unesco world heritage title.

Finally, the MPF requests that the company and Iphan be jointly and severally sentenced to indemnify the community for irreversible damage caused to the geological and landscape heritage, in value not less than R$ 50 million. On these two requests there is still no judicial decision.

One of the two most well-known and visited postal cards in Brazil, the Urca and Sugar Loaf hills are owned by the Union, federally recognized and recognized since 2012 as world heritage by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (Unesco), in the Cariocas Landscapes category: Enter the Mountain and the Sea.

A proposal to install a zip line in the hills of Pão de Açúcar and Urca caused mobilizations against the manifestation of the Brazilian Committee of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to Unesco for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

Second opinion of Icomos gathered in the action of the MPF, “the approval of this intervention compromises the authenticity and integrity of the bem en questão and opens precedents for other mischaracterizations in bens tombados naturales in their environment.”

Even in accordance with the manifestation of Icomos, the installation of the zip line can make the Sugar Loaf be included in the list of world heritage sites in danger or even to the exclusion of the landscape of Rio de Janeiro from the world heritage list.

In a note released on the night of this sixth fair (2), the company responsible for the Tyrolean company affirms that it will contest the judicial decision.

“The Bondinho Park complies with all the legal procedures required for the interventions carried out on us and obtains the proper authorizations from all the licensing and relevant bodies: Iphan, Instituto Rio Patrimônio da Humanidade, Municipal Secretary of Environment and Climate, Municipal Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification and GEO-RIO”.

The company still affirms that “it will not make efforts to demonstrate that the construction works of the zip line are being carried out with the best practices, highlighting care in relation to the preservation of the environment.”