The Federal Revenue Service published a normative instruction that determines the issuance of an electronic invoice for gold trading. The measure represents an important step to combat illegal mining, because the previous instruction, from 2001, allowed manual issuing, which facilitated fraud in the market.

The new rule was the result of work by the Brazilian Mining Institute and the Instituto Escolhas, among other organizations. The next step is the approval of a draft in Congress that ends the principle of good faith, used for gold laundering, by requiring proof of the legal origin of the product.

Extreme climate events occurring in states of the Legal Amazon region have affected more than 40,000 people. The Acre River reached 16.84 meters in the state capital, Rio Branco, almost three meters above its overflow level, which is 14 meters, leaving 2 thousand people homeless and about 3,800 displaced.

In Rondônia, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) gave the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) a deadline of 72 hours to inform what measures have been adopted to help the Karipuna indigenous people, who have been homeless for more than a week after the Jaci Paraná River overflowed and flooded a large part of the Karipuna Indigenous Land.

The House of Representatives approved, on Thursday afternoon (30), two provisional measures (MPs), from the Bolsonaro government, with considerable socio-environmental setbacks. Both now go to the Senate for approval.  The [Provisional Measure] MP 1.150/2022 opens the way for more deforestation in the little that remains (12%) of the most threatened biome in the country: the Atlantic Rainforest. In this case, the proposal was made through an amendment unrelated to the main theme of the MP – the Forest Code (Law 12.651/2012). The idea of changing the Atlantic Forest Law (11.428/2006) came from União Brasil and party leader Elmar Nascimento (BA), who insisted on including it in the approved text. The final text also extends for another year the deadline for rural producers to join the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), foreseen in the Forest Code.

The other MP (1.151/2022) approved in the House plenary changes the rules of forest concessions, opening the possibility of exploitation of other environmental goods and services, besides timber, including in protected areas occupied by indigenous and traditional communities. Only PDT and the PSOL/Rede federation voted against. According to the final text, the concessions will be able to generate carbon credits and use the genetic heritage of plants and animals, for example. 

Congressman allied to mining companies and agribusiness have launched the Parliamentary Front for Sustainable Mining, which aims to expand mining in Brazil. The new front is linked to Bolsonaro supporters, illegal gold diggers defenders and extreme right-wing parties, and has received incentives from companies linked to the mining sector and the Brazilian Mining Institute. Federal Representative Zé Silva (Solidarity-MG) chairs the front, which has two vice-presidents: Senator Zequinha Marinho (PL-PA) and representative José Rocha (Union Brazil-Bahia).

The National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) has requested the National Mining Agency (ANM) to suspend the 6th Round of Area Availability for mining in the Amazon. In the letter sent on March 20, Funai warned about the proximity of some concessions to indigenous lands and asked that the authorization for mining activity should not affect these territories.

The 6th Round, which offers 420 mining areas throughout Brazil, was launched in September 2022 by the Bolsonaro government and follows the schedule available on the agency’s website. The Observatory of Human Rights of Isolated and Newly-Contacted Indigenous Peoples (Opi) had warned about the possible impacts of the concessions, especially in the Yanomami Indigenous Lands in Roraima, Piripkura in Mato Grosso, and Uru Eu Wau Wau in Rondônia, where people live in voluntary isolation.

To create memory and help elaborate on the tragedy of mineral policy under the Bolsonaro government, The Mining Observatory [Observatório da Mineração] and Smoke Signal [Sinal de Fumaça] have launched the bilingual report “Pure Dynamite: how Bolsonaro’s Government (2019-2022) Mineral Policy Set Up a Climate and Anti-Indigenous Bomb” an independent production that brings a timeline of the mineral sector and details the dismantling of regulatory bodies, rights violations, scandalous agreements and other measures adopted by the former government to satisfy the mineral market lobby in the country and the world.

In its thorough and investigative work, Observatório da Mineração closely followed the work that Bolsonaro’s government undertook at the national and international levels to dismantle public policies and sell mining and metal goods. Investigations have shown that his administration promoted legal and infralegal changes that benefited large mining companies, caused the criminal networks of illegal mining to soar, and made institutions such as the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the National Mining Agency totally subservient to vested financial interests. Smoke Signal Socio-Environmental Monitor, which has recorded facts and movements related to Brazilian socio-environmental policies over the last four years, joined Observatório da Mineração to produce this unprecedented report.

In addition to exposing the sophisticated articulations made between the mining market lobby, transnational companies and the federal government behind closed doors in the National Congress, the publication also brings a brief summary of the first measures adopted by Lula’s government and a list with 20 initial suggestions for the recovery of public governance and the reduction of negative effects of mining in the country. 

Click here to read our report in english. Also available in portuguese.

Eletronuclear, a subsidiary of Eletrobras, Brazil’s electricity company, is facing a public civil suit after the Angra 1 nuclear plant in Angra dos Reis. in Rio de Janeiro state, leaked radioactive material into the sea in September 2022. About 90 liters of radioactive waste escaped from valves during a maintenance process and was carried by rain into Itaorna Bay.

Eletronuclear took three weeks to notify the regulatory agency about the incident, which happened on September 16. The company denied the leak in a statement, but the Federal Prosecutor’s Office believes that Eletronuclear tried to hide the incident. The Court ordered the company to publicly disclose information about the incident and the measures to contain the damage, and to make a full assessment of the damage within 30 days and not to conceal or manipulate information about what happened. It is not yet known whether the accident may cause harm to the environment and to the population.

Deforestation in the Matopiba region, comprised by portions of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, may jeopardize the water supply of at least 373 cities, according to a study released on Wednesday (22) by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam) and MapBiomas. The analysis published with Agência Pública brings data on five river basins, and indicates that the flow of rivers in the Cerrado, the Brazilian  may fall by up to 34% by 2050 due to the loss of native vegetation.

The basins of the Tocantins, São Francisco, Parnaíba, Itapecuru and Araguaia rivers, which had the highest deforestation rates in 2022, are fundamental for the water supply of urban and rural populations. The consequences for water quality and the risk of water shortages may be even greater than the 373 municipalities pointed out in the analysis.

The Federal Police is investigating the possible participation of Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, known as Colombia, in the death of Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, a FUNAI [Brazilian indigenous peoples agency] employee, in Tabatinga (AM), in September 2019. He is already suspected of having been the mastermind of the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira, last year.

Investigations are trying to assess whether Colombia hired the gunmen to kill the FUNAI employee. The line of investigation is that they would have crossed the triple border with neighboring countries to commit the crime at the behest of Colombia. No suspects have yet been arrested for the crimes.

The investigation was reopened in September 2021, three months after Bruno and Dom’s deaths, and is under secrecy. The police team found several coincidences between the group accused of the double murder and the attack on Maxciel, who worked alongside Bruno in the fight against illegal fishing and mining in Vale do Javari in 2019. According to the. In the past, the police had suggested the archiving of the investigations, but the Federal Public Prosecutor was against it and the investigation was resumed after pressure from Maxciel’s relatives and the international repercussion of Bruno and Dom’s deaths.

The Office of the Attorney General  (AGU) has allowed the collection of at least BRL 29.1 billion in environmental fines levied by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) to continue. The opinions reject the statute of limitations for environmental fines levied by the agency and were approved by the Union’s Attorney General, Jorge Messias, on Monday (20/3).

The measure provides legal security for the continuity of the collection of fines, which had been annulled by orders drawn up by the former president of IBAMA, Eduardo Bim, during the Bolsonaro government.

The Serra do Mar State Park in São Paulo state, the largest Atlantic rainforest reserve in Brazil, is being targeted for illegal mining, according to reports received by the Federal Public Prosecution (MPF). Indigenous people who live in the region found clandestine bridges, a house and trails used by miners, as well as a road that goes through the forest.

Images were recorded inside the Renascer Indigenous Land, in Ubatuba, on the northern coast of São Paulo, showing a truck being loaded with gravel inside a protected area. Attorney Walquíria Picoli stated that there is no authorization from the Union for the mining activity and no environmental license to mine, constituting two crimes: the crime of usurpation of Union property and the crime of illegal mining.

The Supreme Court (STF) ruled on Thursday (21) to annul a federal transfer contract of Fernando de Noronha archipelago made with the state of Pernambuco. The assignment agreement was considered illegal by the STF in a unanimous vote.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the rapporteur of the case, stated that the Federal Constitution prohibits a state from transferring part of its territory to another. The contract signed between Pernambuco and the federal government was declared null and void. The decision paves the way for the federal government to reevaluate the economic exploitation model of the island and thus protect public heritage more effectively.

Federal representative José Priante (MDB-PA) was elected on Wednesday (15) chairman of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the House of Representatives. Priante is known to be a defender of illegal miners in Pará, his home state, and has already called for an end to the destruction of miners’ equipment in police actions during a meeting with the then-chief minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, in 2022.

Data from the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) indicate that the frequency of extreme rainstorms in Greater São Paulo region has tripled in a decade. Between the years 2001/2010 and 2011/2020, thunderstorms over 100 millimeters went from two to seven days every ten years, while heavy rains over 80 millimeters went from nine to 16 days.

A comparison with INMET’s initial period of analysis, between 1961 and 1970, also shows an expressive increase in the number of days with rainfall above 50 mm and precipitation above 80 mm in the last decade. Thunderstorms above 100 mm were repeated seven times in the most recent period, while in the 1960s, there were no occurrences.

A report prepared by FUNAI, Brazilian indigenous agency, pointed out that 46 landing strips on Yanomami lands in the Amazon region need maintenance to ensure transportation of the sick and emergency aid to those affected by illegal mining. However, military personnel responsible for the Army’s operation in the region refuse to carry out repairs.

According to the report published by Agência Pública, the military justifies their refusal by alleging that FUNAI did not correctly report the maintenance needs of the landing strips. Furthermore, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) has been pressuring the responsible authorities to resolve the impasse.

Meanwhile, President Lula traveled to Roraima to participate in an assembly of indigenous people and discuss actions to defend the rights of native peoples.

Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, spoke in an interview about controversial topics such as fossil fuel exploration in the Amazon and the renewal of the operating license for the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on the Xingu River. Marina declared that, in her personal opinion, Petrobras cannot continue being an oil company, because it needs to make the transition to renewable energies.

She also referred to Belo Monte as a “trauma,” acknowledging the damage done to local populations and the environment, and expressed concern about the current state of the ministry, which has been significantly undersized and undermined during Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure.

A landslide in Manaus, Amazonas state capital, last Sunday (12) hit 11 houses in the Jorge Teixeira neighborhood, in the east of the city, which caused eight deaths. The tragedy caused by heavy rains led Mayor David Almeida to declare a state of public calamity.

According to a study by the collaborative network of NGOs MapBiomas, Manaus is the city with the largest expansion of urbanized areas in precarious settlements in Brazil. The study points out that the region where the tragedy occurred was not registered as a risk area, although it was within a precarious settlement delimited by IBGE.

MapBiomas highlights that human actions have caused major changes in the environment, which led to extreme concern among scholars and environmental defenders. Since 1985, urban occupation in risk areas in Manaus has increased by about 1,319 hectares, equivalent to 10,000 football fields. Manaus concentrates more than 36% of all risk area occupation in the state.

The temporary commission of the Brazilian Federal Senate to monitor the humanitarian crisis in Yanomami Indigenous Land approved its work plan last Wednesday (8/3). According to the rapporteur of the commission, Senator Dr. Hiran (Progressistas-RR), more than 19,000 gold miners have left the area since the eviction operation began last February. The president of IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, Rodrigo Agostinho, also supports this: “We have removed almost 80%, 90% of the gold miners.”

The Senate commission also requested information on the funds released by the Amazon Fund and invited indigenous and environmental organizations for public hearings. Meanwhile, federal forces continue anti-gold mining actions and have already applied penalties of over R$10 million.

The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, visited Yanomami Land on Saturday (4) to see firsthand the actions implemented by IBAMA to curb illegal gold mining. She went to the inspection base in the Palimiú community, where armed gold miners fired at agents, and flew over regions invaded by the garimpeiros. She was astonished by what she saw in the territory: “The degradation is immeasurable,” she said.