The Brazilian government has found an excuse to justify that a bill authorizing the exploitation of the natural resources of indigenous territories should be voted on urgently: because of the war in Ukraine and the resulting international sanctions against the Kremlin, Brazil must make up for the shortage of Russian fertilizers as quickly as possible. A – false – excuse that threatens lands so far preserved. But the bill will be voted on in a month.
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It is true that Brazil will need fertilizers in the coming months, but this law will not help to produce them so quickly and especially not from the Amazon because most of the potassium reserves, essential for fertilizers, are rather in the south of the country, which Jair Bolsonaro does not say but which the experts know. The maneuver nevertheless worked to advance this law, which particularly annoys Romulo Batista, spokesperson for the Amazon campaign at Greenpeace.
“Most of the potassium reserves are not in the Amazon. It’s a bogus excuse from the government who really want to legalize the gold panning that infests indigenous lands.”
Romulo Batista, spokesperson for the Amazon campaign at Greenpeaceat franceinfo
Gold panning, the gold rush which has consequences on the land and pollutes the water and the subsoil, is an obsession of President Bolsonaro who practiced it in his youth and who still defends it. As a result, the activity has developed a lot in Brazil, in particular in recent years, to the point of being at the origin today of half of the gold exported from Brazil, according to Larissa Rodrigues, specialist in this question with the Escolhas Institute. “Gold panning is treated as if it were small-scale artisanal mining, which is not the reality in Brazil. The area of gold panning in Brazil, in terms of hectares, is superior to that used by industrial mining.”
“Gold panning is a very well organized business. They refine gold, they have export companies, aviation companies, it’s a whole industrial organization.”
Larissa Rodrigues, from the Escolhas Instituteat franceinfo
According to Brazilian NGOs, Europe would have a very important role to play since there is a regulation approved in 2017 by the European Parliament which requires proof of the origin of minerals in countries where mines pose ecological or human rights. Brazilian NGOs would therefore like Brazil to be included in this list. “We have a request that Brazil be included in this list, as it would at least oblige European Union importers to monitor their gold suppliers,” claims Larissa Rodrigues.
The presidential election next October will be decisive for the Amazon: because Lula, who is currently the favourite, opposes mining in indigenous territories and could reverse this measure.