The Dangers of Mining in Brazil: Affects on the Environment and Indigenous Groups By
By Armando J Barcena
Relevant Background
Brazil is the second largest producer of mineral ores in the world.[1] For this reason, Brazil has a long history of ore extraction that could be divided into three phases.[2] The first phase involved the surface mining of gold deposits during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[3] The second phase involved the mining of deposits slightly below the surface, which was funded by foreign investors.[4] The final phase began in the twentieth century and still continues today. This phase involves the mining of other mineral ores besides gold by large mining companies.[5] This phase is the result of the culmination of political, social, economic, and environmental issues that have arisen because of the intense mining that has been undertaken in the Amazon rainforest.
Issue Presentation
Mineral ores located in Brazil have become the target of foreign mining companies. The mining operations come at the expense of the environment, the homes of indigenous groups, and the legal system that has been strained while trying to curb the mining. According to the Federal University of Minas Gerais, twenty-eight percent of Brazilian gold exports in 2019 and 2020 were probably the result of illegal mining.[6] Ecological effects such as heightened levels of metals like arsenic and lead have been found in the water near mining dams.[7] The presence of metals in the water is a danger to ecology but also harms indigenous groups who use the water sources for sustenance.[8] The Brazilian government has not done enough to curb the illegal mining so activists groups have taken steps to raise awareness.[9]
Analysis
Mining in Brazil has led to extreme deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation in the Amazon has been so rampant because mining has been conducted in areas that have been leased, but also in areas in which leases have not been approved.[10] Brazilian environmental agencies have not accounted for mining in non-leased areas and continue to grant new leases, increasing the risk for deforestation.[11] The mining also presents another ecological challenge: the endangerment of the diverse wildlife that inhabit the rainforests.[12] The fact that many of the most lucrative mining sites are located in the Amazon rainforest and Atlantic forest means Brazil’s wildlife will always be threatened by continued mining.[13]
Brazil also has the highest concentration of indigenous people in the world, most living in the Brazilian Legal Amazon region.[14] Increased pressure to open this federally protected area to miners has placed indigenous activists on the front lines in the fight to protect the rainforest that also serves as their home.[15] Indigenous groups previously enjoyed limited government support in the fight to open the Brazilian Legal Amazon region to miners. The protected status of this region has declined as recently as 2020 when Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro sent a bill to Congress that minimizes the indigenous groups’ voice on mining operations.[16] Realizing that the government cannot be relied on, indigenous groups have taken action to protect their home. For example, indigenous groups have begun guarding their home, destroying infrastructure, and stealing machines used for mining.[17]
The problems affecting the environment and indigenous groups stems from the way in which Brazilian law regulates mining operations. The Federal Constitution establishes the guiding principles by which mining in Brazil can be conducted. The Federal Constitution is supplemented by the Mining Code, which are laws specifically drafted to regulate the mining sector.[18] Brazilian mining law is written in a way that forces the government to balance public interests in mining, like the public utility of mineral resources, with the private interests of mining companies who seek to profit, without much concern for environmental consequences.[19] Despite improvements in relations between the indigenous groups and the government, the interests of the mining companies seem to prevail. Throughout history, indigenous groups have struggled to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Brazilian government which can explain why their interests are subverted to those of mining companies.[20]
In an attempt to curtail mining operations, activists and academics have begun to call on the Brazilian government to punish companies who contribute to the environmental damage as a result of the mining. It has even been proposed that financial institutions who fund mining operations through loans are blame-worthy because they contribute to the environmental damage.[21] Support for this argument is raised from the procedural and legal requirements established for financial institutions offering loans. One such requirement is to ensure that the borrower has to be operating under a verified environmental license. If the entity is not operating under a verifiable environmental license, the loan should not be issued.[22]
Conclusion
The continued mining operations in the rainforests of Brazil could have dire implications for the environment, for the indigenous people living in this environment, and for Brazilian governance. The amount of pollution resulting from mining operations is detrimental to the vast biodiversity of the rainforests as the combination of deforestation and direct pollution could endanger species that inhabit the rainforests. Additionally, native residents of the rainforest face health concerns as their food and water sources continue to be polluted with mining materials. Indigenous groups also face social, political, and economic consequences as they struggle to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Brazilian government. By continually allowing mining operations in the rainforest, the Brazilian government is treating indigenous groups as inferior. For this reason, it can be argued that Brazil has engaged in human rights violations. Indigenous groups need to continue activating for their political rights but also the rights to protect the environment they call home in order to bring attention to the Brazilian government’s abuse of power.
[1] National Minerals Information Center/ U.S. Geological Survey, 2017.
[2]Antonia José de Mattos Neto & Romario Edson da Silva Rebelo, Social Movements against
Large Mining Companies in Brazil, 15 Veredas dO DIREITO 249, 254 (2018).
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Lisandra Paraguassu, Nearly 30% of Brazil's gold exports are illegal, report says, Reuters, August 30, 2021.
[7] Letícia Couto Garcia et. al, Brazil’s Worst Mining Disaster: Corporations Must be Compelled to pay the Actual Environmental Costs, 27 Ecological Applications 5, 6 (2017).
[8] See Elisabeth C de Oliveira Santos et. al, Mercury Exposure in Munduruku Indians from the Community of Sai Cinza, State of Pará, Brazil, 90 Environmental Research 98 (2002).
[9] See Firefund, Help the Guardians of the Amazon Forest, https://www.firefund.net/forestguardians (last visited Aug. 31, 2021).
[10] Laura J. Sonter et. al, Mining Drives extensive deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 8 Nature Communications 1, 4 (2017).
[11] Id.
[12] Flávio F. Carmo et. al, Mining Waste Challenges: Environmental Risks of Gigatons of Mud, Dust and Sediment in Megadiverse Regions in Brazil, 12 Sustainability 1, 2 (2020).
[13] Id. at 6.
[14] The Brazilian Legal Amazon region serves as a federally protected region where land rights are supposed to be guaranteed to indigenous people. Ana C. Rorato et. al, Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Peoples Threatened by Mining Bill, 15 Environmental Research, 1,1 (2020)
[15] Id. at 2.
[16] Id.
[17] Id. at 8.
[18] Nathalie Barbosa Reis Monteiro, Mining Law: In Search of Sustainable Mining, 13 Sustainability 1, 2 (2021).
[19] Id.
[20] See Jasmine Plummer, The Yanomami: Illegal Mining, Law, and Indigenous Rights in the Brazilian Amazon, 27 GEO. INT'l ENVTL. L. REV. 479 (2015).
[21] See Luciane Moessa de Souza, Civil Liability of Financial Institutions for Socio-Environmental Damages, 15 Veredas do Direito, 357, 359 (2018).
[22] Id. at 368