Mexico: Court ruling bans wind farm construction on indigenous lands, but EDF denies that it will affect the development of its Gunaa Sicarú project
"EDF denies Mexican court ruling over indigenous land challenge will affect wind farm", 27 September 2021
...EDF Renewables has denied that a court ruling banning wind farm construction on indigenous communities’ ancestral lands will affect development of its 252MW Gunaa Sicarú project in south-west Mexico.
“The decision does not have an impact on the development of the Gunaa Sicarú wind power plant, as it is planned exclusively on private lands,” the French energy company told Windpower Monthly.
Under the ruling earlier this month, The First Collegiate Court of Administrative and Civil Matters of the Thirteenth Circuit, based in Oaxaca, voted unanimously to grant an injunction requested by the Juchitan de Zaragoza Farming Community blocking the development of energy projects on ancestral lands...
Welcoming the ruling, the Assembly of Indigenous People of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory criticised the Mexican government for allowing the development of wind farms on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec – a strip of land representing the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean...
The consultation process with local indigenous communities, which is required before construction work can begin, was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid outbreak.
EDF said the ruling would not affect the ongoing consultation processes through which it is presenting the relevant information in community assemblies in both Spanish and the indigenous Zapotec language...