Indigenous organizations contest in court the existence of 60 active processes in the ANM (National Mining Agency) with the intention of exploring gold in lands of the middle and upper Rio Negro.
The projects, if carried out, will impact the lives of 45,000 indigenous people, according to a document from the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro (Foirn) filed in July with the Federal Court in Amazonas. The petition takes into account a survey carried out by ISA (Instituto Socioambiental).
The region in the northwest of the state, which encompasses the border with Colombia and Venezuela, is one of the most preserved in the Amazon.
Known as Cabeça do Cachorro, due to the shape on the map, the place is home to indigenous people from 23 ethnic groups. They live in 750 communities on nine indigenous lands, in the vicinity of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and Barcelos.
On the left and right banks of the Rio Negro are 61 communities, home to 3,800 indigenous people who would suffer the impacts of gold mining. On the banks of the river’s tributaries are other communities, which increases the affected population to 45,000, according to data compiled by the organizations.
The 60 active applications in the ANM seek authorizations for research and exploration of gold in areas that total 149 thousand hectares, almost the size of the city of São Paulo.
The maintenance of these requirements contradicts decisions of the Federal Court in Amazonas, which has already determined the invalidation of these processes in view of the illegality of the exploration of gold and other minerals in areas of indigenous lands.
The Federal Constitution establishes that a law must provide for “specific conditions” for exploration and mining of minerals in these territories. In addition, Congress must approve any mining projects. As there has never been such regulation, mining on indigenous lands is prohibited in practice.
The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government acts to release these activities. In 2020, a bill was sent to Congress by the then Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, and by the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque. The text regulates the points provided for in the Constitution and releases exploitation. Despite urgent approval in Congress, the proposal did not advance further.
Of the 60 requests from the ANM, 25 were filed in the Bolsonaro government, in the wake of the expectation of regulation. If other mineral exploration processes are taken into account, referring to tin, cassiterite, niobium, gravel and sand, the number of active applications reaches 77.
When contacted, the agency did not respond to questions in the report.
In December 2021, a series of reports from Sheet revealed that the minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office), General Augusto Heleno, authorized the progress of seven gold exploration projects in the Cabeça do Cachorro region.
The projects cover areas totaling 12,700 hectares and are located in stretches and islands of the Rio Negro that cross two indigenous lands, where people from 11 ethnic groups live.
The GSI minister is the executive secretary of the National Defense Council, which is responsible for authorizing mining projects in the border strip – up to 150 kilometers inland.
After the revelation, parties and congressmen presented requests to the STF (Federal Supreme Court), PGR (Attorney General’s Office), MPF (Federal Public Ministry) and Congress to overturn Heleno’s acts.
The MPF began to investigate the authorizations. Two lawsuits began to be processed in the STF.
Heleno, then, backed off and decided to cancel the measures, in view of the verification by government agencies that the so-called prior consents released projects in areas of indigenous lands.
The challenge made by Foirn takes place in the course of a popular action pending in the Federal Court in Amazonas. The action was brought by parliamentarians after the publication of the reports and has already had a favorable expression from the Public Ministry, which asked for the suspension of the requests that affect two indigenous lands.
The MPF survey pointed to 33 requests for mining, research or licensing, the vast majority for gold exploration. The data used by Foirn, which is asking to be part of the action, shows that the problem is even broader.
The organizations took into account the active requests in the Jurubaxi-Téa, Rio Téa, Yanomami, Middle Rio Negro I, Middle Rio Negro II and Cué-Cué Marabitanas indigenous lands – one of the previous assents signed by Heleno concerned the latter.
The region is a “mosaic of environmentally protected areas,” according to Foirn’s petition. In addition to indigenous lands, the Pico da Neblina National Park –also affected by the authorization of the GSI minister– and the Amazonas National Forest are part of the region. “It is the largest wetland in the world”, cites the document filed with the Court.
“The river, in addition to being a source of natural resources for these peoples, comprises the dimension of the ancestral territoriality of the indigenous people who have occupied the Negro River basin for millennia”, says Foirn in the petition. “It is also a sacred place, which integrates the indigenous cosmovision, being the scene of several myths of origins of the different peoples that inhabit the region.”
In 2021 and 2022, there was an intensification of illegal mining in the middle Rio Negro, according to the federation. Complaints were presented to the MPF and to Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).
The very processes that had previous assents annulled by the GSI minister are still active in the ANM. A single entrepreneur tries to explore gold on 36,000 hectares in the region, including on Union land. The most recent request was made on the 16th.
“Illegal mining brings, in addition to environmental degradation, significant social impacts to the region. Cases of rapes, fights and murders are once again part of the daily lives of the residents of the middle Negro River, who are also threatened by the increase in the activities of drug traffickers”, the document states. For the indigenous organization, mining authorizations will worsen the situation.
Federation president Marivelton Barroso says that any mining activity on the Rio Negro impacts indigenous lands and the people who live in these territories. According to him, medium and large-sized ferries and dredgers are increasingly appearing.
“We will be the ones most affected. It’s not the government, companies, urban society, but people who are inside the territory. We don’t have protection from the State, and the harassment ends up reaching the communities”, he says.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
