As a result of 7 years of lobbying, the Norwegian parliament passed an act in 1993 which protect 130 rivers from hydropower development.
Belize's Public Utilities Commission acknowledged in court in 2002 that it never approved plans for a hydroelectric dam that would flood the Macal River Valley, a critical wildlife corridor sheltering tapirs, howler monkeys and rare scarlet macaws. The lawsuit by Belizean environmentalists challenged the government's environmental review of the project, which largely ignored the dam's impact on wildlife and so violated the country's laws.