Indigenous groups threatened by gold exploration in remote Amazon

Gold mining in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira would drive deforestation and increase mercury pollution, say ecologists

Environment



16 December 2021

2EXXD38 March 3, 2021: The Brazilian Ministry of Health, with support from the Armed Forces, applies vaccines to indigenous people in the village of Iuarete, municipality of Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the state of Amazonas, on Wednesday (3).The action immunized, against Covid19, about 350 indigenous people in the villages of Taracua Igarape and Santo Atanasio, which are in areas of difficult access in the Amazon Forest, on the border between Brazil and Colombia. Credit: Paulo Lopes/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

An Indigenous village in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Brazil

Paulo Lopes/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

The Brazilian government has approved gold exploration in a pristine expanse of Amazon rainforest that is home to 23 Indigenous groups, an investigation by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper has revealed.

It reported that the head of Brazil’s Institutional Security Cabinet, Augusto Heleno, granted seven licences this year to explore for gold in a virtually untouched stretch of jungle bordering Colombia and Venezuela.

Ecologists say mining in the area, within the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, would drive deforestation …

source: newscientist.com