2023-11-10 13:30:00
Advancement of illegal mining in the Kayapó Indigenous Land, which concentrated 72% of all devastation in the Xingu Basin between 2018 and 2022|Disclosure
Under Bolsonaro, there were four years of lack of control over environmental inspection. Record rates of deforestation and the expansion, throughout the Amazon, of illegal activities such as wood theft and mining.
In the Xingu Basin, which runs through the states of Pará and Mato Grosso, the destruction caused by illegal mining was overwhelming between 2019 and 2022. Dismantling the destruction structure installed in these territories demands strong investments, continuity and consistency in public security activities in the region.
New Xingu+ Network dossier shows the advancement and recurrence of mining in recent years in the region’s Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units. The data produced by Eye Observatory on Xingu indicate that, since 2018, there have been more than 12.7 thousand hectares of open mining areas – 82% within protected areas.
Click here and download the complete dossier
Between 2018 and 2019, a period of change in presidential administration, deforestation generated by the activity increased by 15% in protected areas.
In 2023, activity had a significant reduction, due to increased inspection, but did not stop.
In the first half of the year, around 475 ha were already deforested in TIs, according to published bulletins by the Xingu Basin Deforestation Radar Indication System (Sirad X). At least 17 mining exploration fronts in operation or with signs of activity were identified this year.
During the Bolsonaro government, the reactivation of old mines was a recurring action in the Xingu Basin, such as the Coringa, Madalena and Manelão mines in the Baú, Kuruaya and Trincheira Bacajá TIs.
In addition to the disarticulation of supervision, the improvement in the price of gold on the international market stimulated the advancement of the billion-dollar megastructure that controls criminal activity.
The dossier detailed the extent of mining in six Indigenous Lands and five Conservation Units in the Xingu.
The most drastic case was the Kayapó Indigenous Land, which concentrated 72% of all mining in the basin between 2018 and 2022 and is the TI with the largest area of deforestation generated by illegal mining in the entire country.
In this territory, mining destroyed more in five years than in the previous three decades.
There are three main fronts of exploration in the territory of the Mebengokré people: on the Arraias, Fresco and Branco rivers, and a fourth, slightly more discreet, on Riozinho.
In the first half of 2023, more than 450 ha of forest were felled by mining in the Kayapó TI on its various fronts.
The territory had already been ravaged by activity in the 1970s and 1980s, driven by the opening of roads and the increase in the price of gold. In the following years, it cooled down, until it came back with a vengeance at the end of the 2010s.
Illegal mining in Rio Branco, Kayapó Indigenous Land, in an image produced in the 90s | Disclosure
Thaise Rodrigues, analyst at the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and author of the dossier, says that the reality found today in the Kayapó TI is the result of many factors.
Mining exploration in this territory dates back to the 1960s, prior to the approval of the TI, which occurred in 1991.
The unsuccessful removal of miners from the TI after its approval, the easy land access to mining exploration fronts and the proximity of cities and municipalities with a long history of environmental plunder, created conditions for the consolidation and advancement of illegal activity in Kayapó.
In 2019, the government’s direct incentives for mining exploration, combined with the dismantling of environmental inspection, were decisive for the uncontrolled growth of mining in the area.
Mining in UCs
Another sad news from the Bolsonaro years was the increase in mining in Conservation Units.
In five years, more than a thousand hectares of primary vegetation were cut down to occupy illegal mines in the UCs. Rivers had their beds destroyed and their waters silted up and contaminated.
The impacts were not limited to the landscape: fish, tracajás and other animals were contaminated, affecting the survival of several riverside communities that, over the years, also suffered from grooming and threats.
In 2023, new exploration hotspots were identified in the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve (REBIO) and the operation of mining sites in Flona de Altamira and Extractive Reserve (RESEX) Rio Iriri also continued.
At RESEX Riozinho do Anfrísio, in Pará, at least five new mining areas were opened during Bolsonaro’s administration, and it still remains an active front in August 2023 – despite the inspection efforts of the new government. In total, 42 hectares of forest and 19 riverside communities affected by mercury contamination were felled at the Riozinho do Anfrísio RESEX.
Mining raft on the Iriri River, RESEX Riozinho do Anfrísio, Pará, recorded in May 2014 | Anna Maria Andrade/ISA
Another case that draws attention is that of the Altamira National Forest (Flona). The UC has the largest area of deforestation due to illegal mining in the Xingu Basin. There are two main fronts: in the northwest region, where 309 hectares were deforested between 2018 and 2022, and in the west zone of the territory, where 428 hectares were deforested in the period.
The situation is extremely worrying, especially because the mining areas are located in the so-called “Primitive Zones” of the UCs, that is, areas that are especially important for preservation and recovery, from the point of view of biodiversity. These zones are delimited to, theoretically, establish regions with minimal human intervention to protect river headwaters (source areas), and recover areas already degraded in the past. But they are not being respected, and degradation has only increased.
Rodrigues points out that the persistence of mining requires coordinated and continuous action in these territories. “We are talking about several areas destroyed with the use of large machinery, and capitalized by a criminal network. This requires a consistent territorial protection plan, with the maintenance of protection bases in strategic locations and regular operations to deactivate mining hotspots,” he points out.
According to her, these actions must include the destruction of all associated infrastructure, such as clandestine runways, roads and the complete destruction of the machinery used in gold extraction.
Inspection and persistence
The mining has been persistent even after successive operations carried out by Ibama, which has intensified its actions since the change of government. At the “Manelão” mine, for example, an operation carried out in April destroyed equipment valued at R$304,500, according to information from Ibama itself. Even so, new exploration pits were detected in the first half of 2023.
Manelão, located on the Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Land, was opened for the first time in the 1970s, and reactivated in the middle of the last decade. Between 2018 and 2022, more than 85 hectares of felled forest were detected.
A similar situation occurs in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, of the Parakanã people. Ibama carried out the operation in 2023, but the problem persists. “There are still miners. The Kaete village is very close to the mining sites and the indigenous people who live in this village even hear the roar of the engine”, says Wenathoa Parakanã, leader and president of the Tatooa association.
Overflight of the Indigenous Land (TI) Apyterewa, where the largest mining site in the TI is located | Rogério Assis/ISA
Garimpo had already been a problem in the past, it was fought and returned to plague the Parakanã territory in 2017. During the years of the Bolsonaro government, mining expanded, financed by people linked to land grabbing, a structural problem in the territory.
In 2018, a new mining site known as Pista Dois was opened north of the IT on the tributary of the Bom Jardim stream. In 2019 and 2020, new outbreaks also emerged. The region has already reached the mark of more than 208 hectares felled by mining exploration between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, satellite data confirms the situation reported by Wenathoa: activity continues in mines that had been opened in previous years.
“The risk for us, Parakanã, is above all water pollution, which is getting dirty, which is the mining up there, and there are several villages on the Bom Jardim River, Kaeté, Kanaã, Tivé, Itaeté, Catu , Paranapiana. The fish could be contaminated and we don’t know,” she says. Furthermore, the Parakanã are constantly threatened by miners.
Wenathoa refers to mercury contamination. The heavy metal is used in the mining process to amalgamate the gold. Afterwards, it is burned, leaving only the noble metal. Its burning generates toxic emissions into the atmosphere, which contaminate soil and water. When dumped into rivers and lakes, mercury converts to its most toxic form, methylmercury, which is consumed by fish and other aquatic animals.
Study of mercury contamination in fish launched in 2023 by ISA, in partnership with Iepé and Greenpeace, showed mercury consumption rates above levels considered safe for health in the urban centers of São Félix do Xingu and Altamira, cities surrounding the threatened territories of the Xingu.
Alarming data were also found in another study, carried out in 2018, based on fish from the Curuá and Baú rivers, which supply the Baú Indigenous Land. “A child who was pregnant and developed with access to high levels of mercury may have developmental, motor, neurological problems and this will last for the rest of their life. Much more than the long term”, says Estevão Senra, researcher at ISA.
The degradation and fragility of Apyterewa require permanent efforts, coordinated between various bodies, in addition to the complete disintrusion of non-indigenous occupants in the area “The solution is to remove all the people inside our Apyterewa IT, before farmers remove all the trees and pollute all water. It is from the forest that we get our food and water. If there is no clean water, we cannot survive, like animals. We want pure water and the forest standing so we can breathe pure oxygen”, demands Wenathoa.
Another case of constant concern is that of the Baú Indigenous Land, which has suffered from the intensification of illegal mining in recent years and with successive threats against leaders and communities. Operations by the Federal Police and Ibama in 2022 managed to deactivate a large part of the mining sites and their structures in the territory. Even so, from satellite images it was possible to identify the resumption of activity in two mines: Pista Velha and Jurandi. This is an example in practice that this type of crime requires constant attention from the authorities.
In the dossier, Rodrigues also details how the fight must count on the support of regulatory agencies to ensure the disarticulation of logistics, with the supervision of communication networks (Anatel), the irregular operation of aircraft (Anac) and the control of fuel sales (ANP).
“It is important to think about raising awareness and encouraging a sustainable economic chain in these regions. The economy of the Amazon region needs to be supported by socio-biodiversity, so that local communities have income obtained in a sustainable, non-illicit and non-predatory way, which guarantees natural resources for future generations”, he concludes.
Damage left by illegal mining
Understanding the extent of the destruction caused by illegal mining in the Xingu Basin is important because, even with the recovery of environmental inspection in 2023, the consequences of the lack of control in past years are likely to last for decades.
Today, mining in the Amazon is done mechanized and requires high investment. In this type of exploitation, the environment is destroyed, and the damage can remain for many years.
“Mining, as it is done today, removes the entire soil cover. You practically have no soil structure left so that more diverse vegetation can colonize this area. After 30 years, an area destroyed by mining still does not have the forest recovered, just very poor vegetation and few resources”, explains Senra.
With large hoses, the banks of the river are converted into mud, which passes through other machines to extract gold. In this process, smaller watercourses such as streams are destroyed and become sterile lakes. As a result, larger rivers are silted up by this mud. This is another type of impact that will be marked on the environment for decades.
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