According to an analysis by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), municipalities with presence of illegal miners have worse living conditions than the average of the region. The average Social Progress Index (SPI) of the municipalities affected by mining is 4% lower than the Amazon average and 20% lower than the national average.

“This dismantles the narrative of the miners and the illegal groups, who say that the activity brings economic return, with job generation and benefits for the town. We see that it is exactly the opposite. If there is a financial benefit, this resource is not staying in the town. It goes somewhere, and in the municipality only the environmental impact and the need for the public authorities to spend money to repair the damage remain” says Antonio Oviedo, ISA’s advisor, and author of the study, along with Victor da Silva Araújo.

Throughout the Legal Amazon, about 6 million people, spread over at least 216 municipalities, suffer from the effects of illegal mining. Deforestation, loss of biodiversity, contamination by mercury and an increase in violence and diseases are some of the main problems caused by the activity.

The businessman Luis Felipe Belmonte, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro, gave money to people in the president’s close circle while lobbying for the approval of laws that allow for mining on indigenous lands, according to messages intercepted by the Federal Police (PF). The information is from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. The messages were obtained by the Federal Police as part of an operation aimed at investigating the financing of antidemocratic acts in April 2020.

More than 2 million reais were distributed by Belmonte between Jair Renan, Bolsonaro’s son (R$10,000), the lawyer Karina Kufa, that represents the president (R$634,000), and the marketers Sergio Lima and Walter Bifulco, responsible for his reelection campaign (R$1.5 million). In one of the messages, when asked by his wife, Representative Paula Belmonte, about the expenses, the businessman said that “the goal was to come closer to the palace and make the ‘indigenous project’ viable,” says the report.

A study conducted by the MapBiomas network indicates that in 2020, 51.1% of the area used for gold mining in Brazil was in illegal areas. According to the data from the monitoring initiative, there were 97.8 thousand hectares of gold mining area in Brazil in the analyzed period, of which 92.3 thousand hectares were “garimpo”, small gold digging sites that usually are illegal, and 5.5 thousand hectares were industrial mining. The map was superimposed on the mining processes (PMs) authorized in 2019, revealing the illegality of more than half of the “garimpo” areas.

In recent years, the country has suffered from the aggressive advance of mining activity in protected areas, especially Indigenous Lands. According to the report, between 2019 and 2020, 45% of this growth occurred in unauthorized territories.

The document also highlights the pressure of bills in protected areas. “The approval of PL 191/2020 can lead to a new gold rush inside Indigenous Lands and give amnesty to those who already carried out exploitation before the regulation of mining in these territories. The core of the discussion should be the development of control and enforcement measures between government agencies such as ANM, IBAMA, ICMBio, Federal Revenue Service and Federal Police in order to mitigate the socio-environmental damage of illegal exploitation in the country,” says the text.

In a protest against inspection actions by the Federal Police and the environmental agency Ibama illegal gold diggers blocked the BR-163 highway, an important grain route in the country, in the early hours of March 11. The protesters even warned President Jair Bolsonaro of the blockade through the “Manifesto of the Independent Miners of Alto Tapajós,” sent to the government, in which they criticize the “truculent actions of the federal government through its agencies that should be inspectors and educators, but have been destructive”.

On the morning of the 13th, they halted the blockade of the road, in the region of Itaituba, state of Pará, on the right bank of the Tapajós River, after a judicial notification was sent to the representative of the gold diggers of Alto Tapajós.

Since February, the region of Itaituba and Jacareacanga have been the center of operations against illegal mining, resulting in the destruction of machinery used in the activities, such as excavators, gold mining rafts, cars and engines. The damaged goods add up to about R$14 million, according to police estimates. In the same month, the miners even blocked the ICMBio headquarters in response to the seizures.

In protest against Operation Amazonian Caribbean, in which the Federal Police (PF) acted to suppress illegal gold digging near the Munduruku Indigenous Land (TI) in the region of the Tapajós river, miners blocked access to the headquarters of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity (ICMBio) in the city of Itaituba, in the state Pará, on February 16th.

Criticizing the action of the Federal Police, the mayor of Itaituba, Valmir Climaco (MDB), met with Bolsonaro administration Chief of Staff, Ciro Nogueira, asking the federal government to intervene on behalf of the illegal gold diggers.  In an interview with O Globo, Climaco admitted that his administration was admittedly boycotting inspections on gold mining camps and that he will create a program to monitor the region’s mines and “re-educate” the gold diggers.

A new version of the interactive panel Amazônia Minada (Mined Amazon) shows that the National Mining Agency (ANM) has 3,500 mining applications that overlap, totally or partially, with Indigenous Lands (TIs) and fully protected Conservation Units (UCs) in the Legal Amazon region. Despite being illegal, the federal autarchy continues to allow the requests to be processed. This is seen by analysts as a demonstration of leniency with mining and political pressure for changes in the legislation.

The platform, a partnership between InfoAmazônia, Amazon Watch and the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil Network, collects data from the ANM database on a daily basis and cross-references it with the boundaries of the indigenous land and conservation units of full protection in the Amazon region, identifying which requests overlap or touch on protected areas.

After analyzing satellite images recorded between July 2021 and January 2022, the Federal Police (PF) issued a report and concluded that the “muddy” looking water identified in Alter do Chão village, in the municipality of Santarém (PA), in January, is a consequence of illegal gold digging and deforestation in the region.

The pollution from the illegal mines near Alter do Chão usually didn’t reach the village, but that changed with the advance of deforestation.

Corroborating the opinion of the Federal Police, the MapBiomas project, coordinated by the Climate Observatory, had already indicated that the mud from the mines of tributaries of the Tapajós River, such as Jamanxim, Crepori, and Cabitutu, were be behind the turbid water of Alter do Chão, known as the “Amazon Caribbean” for its crystal-clear waters. “It is possible to see the sediments coming down from the other rivers that are ravaged by illegal gold diggers now advancing through Tapajós,” said the MapBiomas team in a press release.

The president Jair Bolsonaro published decree No. 10,966, which established the “Program of Support for the Development of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining” (Pro-Mape), with the goal of fostering “sustainable regional and national development”, with the Legal Amazon as a priority region. In practice, this is an action to support gold digging. The text also announces the creation of the Interministerial Commission for the Development of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (Comape) to support the implementation of the program. He also released decree No. 10.965 amends the regulations of the Mining Code, obliging the National Mining Agency to adopt “simplified criteria” for the analysis of processes and licences.

Escolhas Institute, which studies the illegal gold mining chain in the Amazon and recently published the study “X-Ray of Gold: more than 200 tons may be illegal”, released a statement highlighting the critical points of the measures and requesting the revocation of the acts. “The two decrees further weaken the almost non-existent control in the gold digging chain. Instead of establishing more rigid criteria for controls and inspection, which are necessary on the part of the federal government, they stimulate the activity that today is one of the main threats to the Amazon forest and its peoples,” says the text.

There was also a reaction from Congress against the measures. Congressman Reginaldo Lopes asked for the suspension of the act through a legislative decree project.

A survey by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) indicates that since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, deforestation in the biome has grown 56.6%. The study compared August 2018 and July 2021 to the same period from 2015 to 2018.

According to the study, 51% of deforestation occurred on public lands, with 83% of this total in areas under federal jurisdiction. Proportionally to the size of the territories, Indigenous Lands (TIs) had an average increase of 153% in deforestation compared to the last three-year period, while Conservation Units (UCs) registered an increase of 63.7%.

“When we look at the figures for the last three years, it is clear that Brazil has regressed from what it once was. We are following a path totally opposite to the attitudes that the planet urgently needs right now,” said Ane Alencar, lead author of the study and director of Science at IPAM.

Earlier this year, another study with alarming data on the devastation of the Amazon under the Bolsonaro government was released by the scientific community. According to the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), in 2021, the Amazon forest suffered the largest deforestation of the last 14 years.

By a margin of 18 votes to 5, with one absentee, Mato Grosso state congress approved a Complementary Law Project (PLC no. 58/2020) that authorizes mining in environmental protection areas in rural properties, allowing the proprietors to make an environmental compensation in return.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has spoken out against the proposal. “Although the state can legislate on environmental law, it can create laws only to increase the protection on the legal reserve, and not to decrease the protection on the legal reserve. They are allowing an extremely polluting activity to the environment, that could cause many problems,” said Erich Masson, public prosecutor in Mato Grosso, heard by Jornal Nacional.

The bill was authored by Congressman Carlos Avallone and it is up to the state governor, Mauro Mendes, to sanction the measure. He said, via his office, that he is waiting for a legal opinion from the state’s Attorney General’s Office before making his decision.

Over  600 mining rafts of illegal gold diggers moved in a queue along the Madeira River in the region of the municipalities of Autazes and Nova Olinda do Norte, in the state of Amazonas.

According to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, “a man identified as a gold digger is talking about setting up a ‘wall’ of rafts, with people around the equipment, to react to any kind of inspection approach” by the Federal Police.

The presence of the rafts on the river, one of the most important in the Amazon, is a serious threat to the local ecosystem, compromising hundreds of fish species and also the quality of the water and the health of indigenous populations.

A report by Agência Pública revealed that order 7036900/2020, a key piece in the investigation of Operation Akuanduba, allowed lumber companies to export 100,000 tons of Amazonian wood, including endangered species, during the 15 months it was in effect. The amount exported, which includes wood from endangered trees, is higher than in the last four years.

Fiquem Sabendo, an independent data agency specialized in the Access to Information Law (LAI) denounced the lack of transparency of the ICMBio in an article about environmental crimes. The federal agency denied access to information on companies and individuals fined for environmental violations in conservation areas.

The Federal Police initiated an investigation with the objective of dismantling a criminal organization specialized in the extraction and illegal commerce of gold in the south of Pará state. According to the Federal Police, every year around a ton of illegally extracted gold leaves indigenous lands in the region.

The operation “Terra Desolata” targets illegal gold diggers who work in the Kayapó Indigenous Land.  The names of those being investigated have not been publicized, but according to a report by G1, the 4th Federal Criminal Court of the Federal Court in Pará has issued 12 preventive detention orders and 62 search and seizure warrants. Besides Pará, there are warrants being served in Amazonas, Federal District, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Roraima, Rondônia, São Paulo and Tocantins. 

Even though it is proven to be Ineffective in slowing deforestation, the Brazilian government continues to be defend the presence of the Armed Forces in the Amazon. Since 2019, there have been three Law and Order Guarantee operations (GLO)  issued by the government. The last one ended in August. Altogether, the three cost R$ 550 million (US$ 100 million)  while environmental devastation broke successive records.

According to Vice President Hamilton Mourão, the military must remain in the field so the country can present “positive numbers” at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-26), which begins Oct. 31 in Scotland. The speech occurred during the last meeting of the Amazon Council, of which Mourão is president, on August 24.

Two Yanomami boys, ages 4 and 7, drowned in the Parima River, in the Macuxi Yano community (TI Yanomami), after being sucked into machinery used by illegal miners in the region, in Roraima, according to a complaint by the Yanomami Indigenous Health Council and Ye’kuana (Condisi-YY). The children were playing when the tragedy occurred.

“We believe that the force of the dredger knocked the children down and dragged them by the current,” the council’s president, Junior Yanomami, told El País.

One of the bodies was found the following day in a search carried out by the indigenous people, and the second was found two days later by the Fire Department, called by the community.

For Condisi-YY, the episode is a tragedy foretold in the face of the advance of mining activity in indigenous lands, driven by the negligence of the federal government.

According to a survey by the Socio-environmental Institute (ISA) and the Global Fire Emissions Database, the Piripkura Indigenous Land (TI), which is home to two of the last three Piripkuras, had an area of 3.4 thousand hectares burned in August, the equivalent to 4.2 thousand football fields. The destruction is the result of the advance of illegal logging and land grabbing in the territory, which uses fire to prepare the land for cattle, according to ISA.

In 2021, an ordinance restricting the use of the Piripkura Indigenous Lands, was renewed for only six months. For indigenous and environmental groups, the time frame is insufficient to guarantee the security of the territory and its inhabitants.

“In a period of six months you can’t implement inspection measures and a police operation to remove these invaders. Knowing the slowness of the federal inspection agencies, they will not be able to move forward with the removal of these invaders,” said Antonio Oviedo, coordinator of ISA’s Protected Areas Monitoring Program. 

An unprecedented survey conducted by the Mining Observatory [Observatório da Mineração] revealed that, from 2008 to 2021, government officials rescued 333 workers in conditions of slavery from mining camps in Brazil. The Special Mobile Inspection Group (GEFM) of the Undersecretariat of Labor Inspection carried out 31 operations carried out in the period, in partnership with environmental inspection agencies and the Federal Police. The majority of the actions happened in the Amazon and Northeast regions; the State of Pará led the list, with 12 operations.

When heard by the Observatory, Magno Riga, coordinator of the GEFM, declared that with the extinction of the Ministry of Labor by Jair Bolsonaro’s government compromised the fight against slave labor. “We lost autonomy. Now we need to inform in advance and go through a series of procedures. They strangled us” he said.

Since 2019, indigenous people and civil society organizations denounce the advance of illegal mining activity in protected areas and traditional territories.

At the request of the Federal Police (PF), Justice Cármen Lúcia, of the Supreme Court (STF), determined the suspension of proceedings in the Federal Justice of Amazonas and Pará within the scope of Operation Handroanthus, which investigates the largest seizure of illegal timber made in Brazil, in December 2020. The PF is suspicious that state courts may have decided in favor of the accused, such as the former president of Ibama, Eduardo Bim, Senator Telmário Mota (Pros-RR), and the Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who are being accused of obstruction of justice.

“It is fundamental to recognize the connection (…) between court decisions and these politicians who act to ensure the impunity of the accused, making use of their power,” argued the PF to the Supreme Court, according to G1.

During Bolsonaro’s administration there was a 363% increase of the area degraded by illegal gold diggers in the Munduruku Indigenous Land, according to a study by the Socio-environmental Institute (ISA). Between January 2019 and May 2021, illegal mining activity has destroyed 2,264.8 hectares of the Indigenous Land in the region near the municipality of Jacareacanga, in southwest Pará state.

Antonio Oviedo, ISA advisor, attributes the expressive increase in destruction to the encouragement of the federal government. “The increase in the outbreaks of illegal mining comes together with the decrease in fines by Ibama, the willingness to accept requests to open up Indigenous Lands for mining, official sabotage of Ibama’s actions against illegal logging, the issuing of regulations that make environmental licensing more flexible in Indigenous Lands and alter the rules for certification of rural properties that overlap with Indigenous Lands, and other formal attempts to alter the regime of protection of indigenous rights,” he declared. ISA also points out that the actions of Minister Ricardo Salles were favorable to the miners who operate in the region.

Recently, a Federal Police operation to curb the invasion and fend off armed gold diggers of Munduruku and Sai Cinza Indigenous Land was cut short. The government says that the Operation was cancelled due to lack of resources.

The federal judge of the state of Amazonas, Mara Elisa Andrade, ordered the release of part of the cargo seized by the Federal Police during Operation Handroanthus, the largest seizure of illegal timber in the country. With the decision, tons of logs, rafts, boats and machinery were returned to the Community Association of Gleba Cumurucuri, the target of the investigation.

According to the website G1, the magistrate said that the investigation is at an “incipient” stage, which would not justify the indefinite confiscation of the cargo, and pointed out that the Federal Police commited “ostensive persecutory and restrictive acts of rights and freedoms”. The operation already generated a crime notification against Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, filed by the then head of the Federal Police in the Amazon, Alexandre Saraiva, dismissed after accusing Salles of obstructing the work of the police and acting in favor of environmental criminals.