Bridging Divides

As Brazil decides where and how to build infrastructure required for growth, the talks' host country knows well the trade-offs governments must make to satisfy the needs groups -- "major" and minor -- that compete for aid, attention and other resources.

Residents displaced by the Belo Monte dam development stand with their supporters atop a temporary earthen dam at the project's construction site near Altamira, Brazil. They removed a strip of earth on June 15 to restore the flow of the Xingu River as a protest against the construction. Belo Monte will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric project and will displace up to 20,000 people.

Can such disruptive change be "sustainable development?" The answer lies in the delicate negotiations among and within nations.

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