Indigenous leaders petition the Federal Justice to stop the expansion of mining in the Negro river (AM)

Brazil’s National Mining Agency (ANM) has taken advantage of a legal loop hole that left the Negro river outside of the protection area of Indigenous Territories to allow mining requests in the region. The situation provoked Indigenous leaders to petition the Federal Justice to annul existing mining requests in July. They claim that they have not heard back from the court. 

The petition states that the mining requests stimulate the action of illegal miners in the territories and puts people from 21 ethnicities at risk. Among the threatened people are the Baré, Tukano, Baniwa, Piratapuya, Yanomami, Desano, Wanano, Hupda and Dâw.

“We filed the petition because the most affected will be ourselves, Indigenous peoples. It won’t be the government, it won’t be the corporations, it won’t be the urban populations: it will be us, who are inside the territory”, stated Marivelton Baré, from the Federation of Indigenous Organizations from Negro River (Foirn).