Illegal mining deforests 170 football fields in the Amazon – 03/12/2024 – Environment

The Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, the largest in Brazil, has become a target for illegal mining. The invasion intensified in the region from 2022 onwards, according to a study recently released by Iepé (Indigenous Research and Training Institute), which monitors the area.

Since then, the criminal action has caused, in total, the deforestation of 122 hectares in the conservation unit, equivalent to 170 football fields.

Iepé found that, in 2023, there was a 304% increase in the expansion of mining within Tumucumaque near the Waiãpi Indigenous Land. The area is next to the district of Lourenço, in the municipality of Calçoene, 350 km from Macapá — where mining activity has existed for more than a hundred years, according to the entity.

Between 2021 and 2022, deforestation in the unit was 30 hectares.

In a statement, ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), the body responsible for national parks, stated that it is intensifying actions to combat illegal mining in the area with support from the Federal Police.

The agency linked to the MMA (Ministry of Environment and Climate Change) also said that in 2023 two operations were carried out at the unit, which resulted in the application of R$ 960 thousand in fines, an embargo of 111 hectares and the seizure of mercury and gold, in addition to the destruction of equipment used in mining.

The Tumucumaque Mountains cover 38,670 km² and occupy 26.4% of the entire territory of Amapá, as well as part of northern Pará. The park, which borders French Guiana and Suriname, has an exuberant fauna, such as large carnivores jaguar and cougar, exotic birds —among them, the rare fire-bright hummingbird— and the primate species squirrel monkey, capuchin monkey, cuxiú, parauaçu, howler monkey and spider monkey.

The national park also has indigenous villages, belonging to the Tiryó, Wayana, Apalai, Kaxuyana ethnic groups and isolated peoples, such as Akurio.

According to Iepé’s information management coordinator, Décio Yokota, the increase in criminal activity in the national park is linked to the migration of miners expelled from the Yanomami Indigenous Land, located between the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

The research institute works with Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) to monitor the progress of illegal mining in the Amazon and identify those responsible.

“Amapá and other regions such as the Tapajós basin [no Pará] and the Munduruku and Kayapó indigenous lands end up becoming attractive places for miners. Operations against illegal mining are important and have effects, but a specific action does not put an end to the activity, which soon returns,” he said.

Also according to Yokota, mining in the region generates other problems, such as the contamination of the Araguari, Oiapoque and Jari rivers, which creates risks to biodiversity and public health, due to the consumption of fish with high levels of mercury.

“In addition to drug trafficking, organized crime and currency evasion, illegal mining causes the contamination of soil and rivers with mercury, used during the amalgamation of gold. Fish become contaminated and [depois] They are widely consumed by traditional communities and urban populations, such as Macapá”, he highlighted.