Amazon: Very High Price of Gold

Between 2022 and 2023, the Amazon and the world will witness dramatic humanitarian and environmental crises created by the confrontation between indigenous people and illegal miners who have settled in the protected territory of the Yanomami people in northern Brazil. Direct and indirect environmental impacts are estimated to affect 30% of this area, which is the largest indigenous reserve in Brazil, home to about 27,000 Yanomami, representing 2.47% of the total indigenous population of Northern Brazil. Occupying part of the Brazilian states of Roraima and Amazonas, the total area delineated as Yanomami Indigenous Land is 96,646.94 km², larger than countries such as Portugal (92,212 km²) and Hungary (93,030 km²).

The invasion of the territory by miners has been going on for decades, but has intensified significantly under the Bolsonaro government, causing serious social and environmental consequences for the Yanomami. In 2022, deforestation increased by 54% compared to 2016, reaching an area equivalent to 314 thousand football fields. It is estimated that 90% of Yanomami people have mercury levels above the WHO recommended level (as a result of river pollution due to gold mining). In one out of four children, mercury levels can lead to neuropsychiatric developmental disorders. Compared to 2016, there was a 78% increase in malaria cases and a 30% increase in child malnutrition cases.

In the 1970s, pressure on Yanomami territory increased due to the invasion of miners in search of gold. Illegal exploration has contaminated rivers with mercury and wiped out about 20% of the indigenous population in the area. After years of struggle, the territory was finally demarcated in 1992, an achievement considered a milestone in the defense of indigenous rights and the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. But in August 1993, illegal miners massacred the population of the village of Haksimu, with the actual number of casualties still uncertain. Thus, despite demarcation, the territory continued to be subject to incursions and external pressure, as well as to further violence.

The increase in mining activities during the presidential term of Jair Bolsonaro provoked a series of actions by civil society and the international community in 2023. Several NGOs, indigenous organizations, and artists have joined together in campaigns to pressure the government to take better measures in protecting the Yanomami and their territory. Last year, the federal government launched Operation Yanomami to combat illegal mining and declared a public health emergency. In March 2023, a United Nations report condemned the serious human rights situation in the area. The paper emphasizes that violence, mercury pollution, and lack of access to health and education are the main problems faced by indigenous people. In April 2023, the Federal Senate established the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to investigate illegal mining in the Amazon Basin, including Yanomami indigenous lands. However, many observers believe that the measures proposed in the final report are not enough to combat the problem.

The increased presence of the state in Yanomami territory also prompted miners to seek alternatives to avoid surveillance. For example, they started working at night to avoid satellite imagery. At the same time, there is growing concern about a possible change in Brazilian legislation authorizing large-scale mining activities in indigenous territories, which would pose a serious threat to the Yanomami and other indigenous populations in the country.

Where does such frenzy come from? The Yanomami area has tremendous mineral wealth. It is estimated to contain reserves of 100,000 tons of cassiterite (Brazil’s largest reserves are estimated at 340,000 tons), 283,000 tons of tin, and between 280 and 850 tons of gold (Brazil’s largest gold reserves are estimated at 357 tons). There are also reserves of diamonds and other minerals.

The amount of gold already mined in the region is estimated at between 28 and 57 tons, but it has already attracted a large number of illegal diggers. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 miners live in the Yanomami territory. Given the average family size in the region, this means that the total population dependent on this activity is between 38,000 and 76,000, thus exceeding the indigenous population itself. This partly explains the lack of interest of many elected politicians in protecting indigenous territories. Besides economic aspects, there is an electoral factor: miners and their associates guarantee a significant contingent of votes.

Indigenous people now make up about 6% of the total population of Brazil’s northern region, the Amazon rainforest zone. Persons of all nationalities below the poverty line account for 25.4% of this population. In other words, for every poor indigenous person in the Brazilian Amazon, there are approximately three poor non-indigenous people (black, white, or mixed descent). For these people, the rights granted to indigenous peoples seem like unfair privileges that take away opportunities and resources they are entitled to. Notably, conflicts involving indigenous peoples are related to the demarcation of their territories. The four Brazilian states with the highest number of conflicts involving indigenous people are among the states with the largest demarcated territory: Pará, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Maranhão.

It is a question of balance between universal social policies that serve all social groups and targeted social policies that address historically vulnerable and excluded groups. While targeted policies are necessary to achieve social justice, they must be incorporated into a broader, universalist process that guarantees the rights of all.

This is one of the greatest challenges to both environmental protection and the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights: urban populations often forget or idealize the hardships of the forest-dwelling poor (especially if they are not indigenous). Instead of stimulating alternative socio-ecological development, they cause new conflicts. An adequate solution to the problem of the Amazon Forest and its people involves integrated socio-ecological development, which includes both the human development of all inhabitants and the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Many believe that the unregulated exploration currently prevalent could be a viable alternative to developing Brazil’s northern region. In particular, mining that is unregulated or unrelated to the socio-environmental development of the region has already proven to be far more destructive than prosperous. The Amazon’s most famous gold producer, Eldorado de Carajas, experienced a burst of illegal mining in the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by the spread of malaria, leishmaniasis, and sexually transmitted diseases; child prostitution; murders among miners, indigenous people, and farmers; deaths from work-related accidents; mercury contamination of the region’s rivers, with consequences also for remote fish-consuming populations.

Over the years, mining regularization and regional development have reduced these problems. However, in the south, Minas Gerais, Brazil’s most traditional and structured mining region, has recently experienced two major environmental tragedies, namely Mariana and Brumadinho, which killed more than 250 people and caused more than $20 billion in environmental damage. The trials of the perpetrators and the demand for compensation are still ongoing.

The political and cultural challenge remains. There is a nationalist ideology that defends the occupation and exploitation of the Amazon as a manifestation of national sovereignty. Whereas evidence shows that mining, especially on indigenous lands, is almost always a mistake that brings profit to very few and loss and tragedy to almost everyone.