2023-04-14 06:50:00
The overexploitation of the world’s largest intact rainforest is getting completely out of hand: A Greenpeace report shows how heavy excavators are being used. At the expense of the environment, the indigenous people and the climate.
“Yanomami never starved,” says Davi Kopenawa, president of the Hutukara Yanomami Association. “Now prospecting for gold is killing my people, as are the Munduruku and Kajapó. When indigenous people are sick, they can neither hunt nor till the fields.” It was only a few weeks ago that the new government under Brazilian President Lula da Silva declared the medical emergency for the Yanomami region (on the upper Rio Negro in northern Brazil) proclaimed. By then, hundreds had starved to death.
This was caused by the encroachment of the gold prospectors who are illegally searching for the precious metal in the rainforest. Not only is forest cut down, but mercury is used, among other things. Highly toxic, both for nature and for humans.
Tests among Yanomami populations in the states of Roraima and Amazonas, bordering Venzuela, found significantly elevated levels of mercury in 92 percent of 239 people living near illegal mining areas. Among the Munduruku (in the state of Pará) it was still 60 percent. Mercury also finds its way into rivers and ultimately poisons the soil, including those used for farming.
Heavy equipment in the middle of the rainforest
#Illegal #prospecting #gold #heavy #machinery