Amazon: mining grew 361% on indigenous lands from 2016 to 2022

Around 241 thousand hectares – an area equivalent to twice the city of Belém, capital of Pará – is the size of the occupations carried out by mining operations in the Brazilian Amazon. Of this total, 25 thousand hectares are areas of 17 indigenous lands (TIs). The data was revealed this Friday (26) by a study by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam).

The research analyzed mining activity in the region over 37 years, between 1985 and 2022. The greatest impact observed occurred between 2016 and 2022, exactly in indigenous lands where mining grew by 361%. Most mining activities, which affect the original people of the Amazon (78%), began during this period.

In six years, while mining expanded 12 times in the extent of the Amazon, when only ITs are considered, the invaded areas grew 16 times, a result that surprised one of the team’s researchers, Martha Fellows Dourado. “In some indigenous lands the increase was very significant. For example, TI Kayapó had an increase of 1,339% in this short period. We were already working with the hypothesis of mining growth in these areas, but we didn’t imagine it would be so aggressive,” she explains.

The impact goes further, when the analysis is carried out on the rivers that cross the reserves, and are affected by mining activity. According to the researchers, another 122 TIs were reached by the waters of rivers where mining uses substances such as mercury, used to separate gold from other sediments, totaling 139 indigenous peoples, who feel the consequences of rivers silted up by excess sediment, the death of animals and the contamination of water and vegetation.

To better understand the impact of mining on the waters, Martha explains that the team looked at other work that reveals the scale of the problem.

“Mining has a direct impact on indigenous health, well documented in work by Fiocruz [Fundação Oswaldo Cruz], which shows contamination from the consumption of fish protein, water for consumption and food preparation. But in addition, other studies indicate that water also contaminates vegetation, which incorporates this mercury and, with the incidence of fire in drier periods, the mercury goes into the air and, depending on the currents, reaches even more distant areas.”

Methodology

The study developed by the team of nine researchers was carried out using data from MapBiomas, based on mapping the scars left by mining in satellite images from the period between 1985 and 2022. The affected areas were converted into points starting from the center of each spot of mining and combined with the limits of indigenous lands based on data from Funai, updated in 2021, to determine the number of mines inside and outside TIs in the Amazon.

The impact of mining on water resources was analyzed based on mapping systematized by the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency (ANA), which points out the hydrological flow, connections and direction of the rivers and also overlapped with the mining areas identified inside and outside the Tis.

Counterpoint

The study also points out some possible directions for reversing the observed phenomenon, which, according to the study’s technical note, is a counterpoint to the conservation of indigenous reserves, historically less affected by deforestation and fire. One of the possible paths is the review of laws such as the Good Faith Law (12,844/2013) and the Garimpeiro Statute (11,685/2008), which, among other facilities for illegal activities, waives the need for a prior license to carry out the activity. .

In the analysis of the Ipam team, this legal structure, combined with the flexibilities that occurred in the legislation, during the period of greatest impact, favored the advancement of mining in a short period with significant impacts on people who already experience serious problems resulting from illegal activity, such as of the most affected Kayapó, Muduruku and Yanomami indigenous lands.

Martha says that this relaxation of mining legislation makes it appear that illegal mining activity is permitted and that there will be no punishment. “This type of message is very problematic, because people who live in the Amazon often don’t have many job opportunities and, in that place, the mining activity is strong, they easily end up becoming illegal.”

More than reviewing mining legislation, the study also suggests strengthening indigenous legislation, with the disintrusion of Tis and also with the demarcation of territories without legal destination. “We still have many territories not recognized by the Brazilian State that are more susceptible to further invasions, when these areas are not fully protected” concludes the researcher.