Major mining companies seek to expand into Brazilian indigenous lands currently protected in the Amazon rainforest, boosted by billions of dollars from international banks and investment firms, according to a report published on Tuesday (22).
Nine giant mining companies, including Brazil’s Vale, Britain’s Anglo American and Canada’s Belo Sun, have submitted applications for authorization to explore indigenous reserves in Brazil, despite the fact that it is currently illegal, according to a report by the NGO Amazon Watch and the Association of Indigenous Peoples. from Brazil (Apib).
The report says companies appear to be betting that President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who is pushing to open up protected lands to mining and agro-industry, will be able to get projects presented by his government approved so he can operate in territories indigenous.
As of November, the companies had a total of 225 active mining requests at the National Mining Agency (ANM), which coincide on 34 indigenous lands, for a total area more than three times the size of London, the document said.
“Environmental damage and threats to the lives of forest peoples from mining activities are brutal and have only worsened under Bolsonaro,” Ana Paula Vargas, program director for Brazil at Amazon Watch, said in a statement.
“With the rainforest at the tipping point of ecological collapse, we must involve all the actors behind this industry.”
Experts say preserving indigenous lands is one of the best ways to protect the planet’s largest rainforest, a vital resource in the race to curb climate change.
The report reveals that the mining companies, which also include Glencore, AngloGold Ashanti, Rio Tinto, Potássio do Brasil and Grupo Minsur, have received a total of $54.1 billion in funding from international investors over the past five years for their operations. in Brazil.
The text asks the banks and financial companies that support these companies to withdraw from them, on the grounds that many also have a history of human rights violations and environmental destruction.
The main financiers of the nine mining companies include US companies BlackRock, Capital Group and Vanguard, which have invested $14.8 billion in them over the past five years, according to the report.
Banks such as France’s Crédit Agricole, Americans Bank of America and Citigroup and Germany’s Commerzbank are also important corporate financiers, with a total of $2.7 billion in loans and insurance, the report said.
Many of the companies have denied the allegations.
Anglo American claimed it had inherited “claims” for indigenous lands which it “fully and formally withdrew several years ago”.
Belo Sun, Minsur from Peru and Potássio from Brazil stated that they do not have any activities related to the indigenous territory and defended their social and environmental performance.
And AngloGold Ashanti informed “that it does not operate and has no interest in operating in Indigenous Lands”. In a note, he explained that “in the 1990s, the gold producer requested mineral research requirements in several regions of the country. Three of these areas were later demarcated as Indigenous Lands (TIs), which led the company to give up on them”.
