Open-cast gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon
This guest blog is part of a series intended as a dedicated space for the many global movements/campaigns around the globe confronting ecosystem destruction to share their stories, narratives and perspectives.
Credits: Xingu River Big Bend, Xingu Volta Grande. ©Cícero Pedrosa Neto/Amazônia Real
This blog post was written by Louise Romain, anthropologist, campaigner for climate justice & Indigenous rights and producer of the podcast ‘Circle of Voices’. It draws on an interview at COP15 with Indigenous land defenders Puyr Tembé and João Víctor Pankararu with the support of Amazon Watch.
One more threat in a fragile region
The Amazon region is known to be facing the pressure from interconnected environmental, geopolitical and socio-economic threats. As an example, the deforestation that makes space for cattle grazing increases the transformation of the rainforest towards becoming a savanna. That process is further accelerated by forest fires and droughts which are intensifying with climate change. But the Amazon also suffers from the greed of international companies who are interested in the mineral resources that lay underneath the rainforest.
One such case is Belo Sun Mining Corp, a Canadian company currently developing the Volta Grande Project (VGP) in the Xingu River’s Big Bend, located in the state of Pará, Brazil. They are looking to operate the largest open-pit gold mine in Brazilian history, threatening the critically important ecosystem as well as the local communities dwelling there.
João Víctor Pankararu, youth coordinator for the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities and communicator with APOINME, reminds us of the larger consequences of such extractive projects:
João Victor Pankararu at the March for Biodiversity and Human Rights, Montréal. Credits: Kamikia Kisedje/APIB
“Thinking about large enterprises, such as Belo Sun, requires a sensitivity to understand that the impact will not only be felt in the state of Pará, in Volta Grande, in Xingu. It is an impact that will affect all of us. We must start thinking about the broader issue posed by these developments that affect Brazil, because they will directly influence the climate emergency that we are all feeling.”
The Xingu river basin has previously been weakened by another ecocidal project: the Belo Monte dam in Altamira. This hydroelectric complex is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the world. It displaced 40,000 people, faced several lawsuits for human rights and environmental violations, and infringed on the rights of Indigenous peoples impacted, especially the process of obtaining free, prior and informed consent, as stated in international legal instruments such as ILO 169 (the International Labour Organization Convention 169) and UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), both ratified by Brazil.
A disaster in the making
There are so many reasons why the Volta Grande Project should not be allowed to happen. On top of causing deforestation and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, mining activity also poses significant risks of contaminating soil, air and water. Belo Sun intends to use cyanide in their operations, a highly toxic component. Because the region is made of porous rocks, underground contamination can unfold over time resulting in unprecedented harm, far from sight but with brutal repercussions for the ecosystems and species affected. The acute exposure to cyanide is lethal as it affects oxygen intake, which can lead to shutting down the cardiovascular and central nervous systems of living organisms.
The Canadian company is also planning to build a tailings dam (a toxic pit with the residual waste from the mining operations) not without safety concerns. In their own environmental impact assessment, the company itself predicts a high risk of a tailings dam failure. In 2015, Brazil suffered from their greatest environmental disaster, the Mariana mining disaster. The collapse of the Fundão tailings dam brought traumatic consequences both for people and the environment, generating a 500km trail of millions of tonnes of toxic mud from the state of Minas Gerais to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Xingu Big Bend is already under pressure from the Belo Monte megadam, which is contributing to a socio-environmental collapse of the ecosystem as well as water and food shortages for the local communities. The Volta Grande Project would be an additional strain in a region deemed a priority area for biodiversity conservation by the Brazilian Environment Minister.
A multilateral coalition against Belo Sun
From left to right: Ta'Kaiya Blaney, land defender from the Tla’Amin Nation, unceded Coast Salish territory, British Columbia, Canada; Dinamam Tuxá, lawyer and APIB executive coordinator; and Puyr Tembé, President of FEPIPA and co-founder of Anmiga, marching in Montreal during COP15. Credits: Kamikia Kisedje/APIB
A coalition has formed to resist the project. Civil society, Indigenous organisations and international networks are joining forces to raise awareness of this catastrophic project. Last December, Amazon Watch published a report 'The Risk of Investing in Belo Sun' which details the reputational, legal, political, social and environmental risks associated with the project. They paint a clear picture for investors: Don’t invest in ecocide.
Both the report and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre highlight that the mining company has been openly spreading misleading, incomplete and distorted information to investors, including at highly mediatised public events. Several investigations have proven that Belo Sun applied for the illegal acquisition of public lands and land use rights since 2015. They are forcing the eviction of resident populations in the mining area, prohibited public access and hired armed security to threaten riverine and fishing communities.
As of today, the environmental licensing process has been suspended following a lawsuit filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público Federal). The ruling proved that Belo Sun and Brazil's Indigenous agency (FUNAI) have failed to assess the impacts that the Volta Grande Project would have on the Arara and Juruna peoples, and ignored their rights to self determination and autonomy (as guaranteed by UNDRIP and the ILO Convention 169) in regards to carrying out a process of free, prior and informed consent with these peoples.
So far, Belo Sun failed to comply with socio-environmental impact assessments, consultation processes and land tenure regulations. While some lawsuits are awaiting a trial court decision regarding the aforementioned issues, the continued legal challenges could potentially lead to the suspension and/or annulment of the Volta Grande Project.
The report concludes with the following:
“The completion of Belo Sun’s project could mean the death of the Xingu River, and the ecocide of a region that is vital to life on Earth.”
Solutions rooted in Indigenous principles
This extractive project symbolizes some of the modern ailments we face. Below are key teachings shared by Puyr Tembé, President of FEPIPA and co-founder of Anmiga, and João Victor Pankararu, as they traveled from their traditional territories to attend the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 in Montréal. Their quotes have been translated but their original voices can be listened to in the sound clips (in Portuguese).
Puyr Tembé at the March for Biodiversity and Human Rights, Montréal. Credits: Kamikia Kisedje/APIB
“Historically as indigenous peoples, we have been talking about the care of the environment and the care of humanity, that if you take care of humanity, you take care of the planet. Society has not yet understood the message of nature, the message of indigenous peoples and traditional populations. And I don't know at what moment society will understand the call. The call of the great Father, the call of Mother Earth. Then we wonder: what are we going to do? Because historically we have been speaking about the dangers, showing the risks. Today we are changing this discourse a little… So now we are going through another mechanism, the mechanism of talking about love. To talk about peace.”
[listen here]
Puyr often talks about ‘reflorestamento’, the need to reforest our minds and hearts to ensure a livable Earth for future generations and co-exist more harmoniously together.
“To reforest the mind is in fact to reforest your soul, your heart and your mind. I think that reforestation is not only about planting, improving the ground we walk on, but we also need to improve, we need to decolonise the mind that is polluted, literally. And with this polluted mind that society has, it won't be able to save the world from destruction.
And that is why the environmental impacts are unfolding. Many cities in Brazil and outside of Brazil are suffering from the impacts of the rains, the fires, the droughts, and we are bringing this reflection: what is this reforesting of minds that we are talking about? What do we want for our futures? I am here now, we are here now. And what about our children and our grandchildren? So we need to reforest the minds of humanity so that we can have a world of solidarity, a fraternal world, a world of peace, love and care, but above all a world of sustainability, of sustainability with all the ancestral and spiritual strength that indigenous peoples and traditional populations have, to be combined with the scientific and technical knowledge.” [listen here]
Credits: Louise Romain
João further builds on this discourse of inclusion and unity by sharing about ‘bem viver’ or ‘buen vivir’, the good life: a living principle shared across Indigenous peoples in South America, that spans across Indigenous cultures around the globe under different names.
“I think that we live longing for this peace, to be able to live quietly, in our forests, our jungles, our bush, to practice our rituals quietly and fully, without anyone threatening us or prejudicing us. I think that this vision of plenitude, peace, dignity, of us living well in our place is very important.
We have crafted this language of solidarity, of love, of sensitivity, so that people begin to act before seeing things destroyed. This is not what we want. We want a safe place, a good place, a place of good living, for all of us. Not just Indigenous people. We want people to embrace this cause and take this cause upon themselves as well, to understand that this cause belongs to all of us. The construction of the good life is the responsibility of all of us.” [listen here]
Finally, he calls on peoples’ responsibilities to hold their leaders to account and to become aware of the connection between our consumption in the Western world and the destruction of Indigenous lands and lives:
“We also call the attention of governments, countries and civil society that their way of living, that is the capitalist and consumerist system, has invested in the destruction of Brazil. So many countries, governments and financial institutions have financed the destruction that has occurred in Brazil. The unbridled consumption of material goods has been driving the destruction in Brazil.
So when we bring these reports out, bringing them to international advocacy, to speak at conferences, at conventions, at forums, of what we have been going through there, it is precisely to awaken people, citizens of those countries, that their country has been a strong investor in this deforestation, in this exploitation.
It is another strategy that we have also used now, to awaken the people themselves to stop the leaders of their nations, who cannot continue doing this. It is necessary to rethink the model of life, this capitalist system that has moved us all for a long time and is only leading us to an end, to something without purpose.” [listen here]
To support this campaign, head over to Amazon Watch’s website which currently has a petition to ‘Get Belo Sun out of the Amazon’ and raise awareness by sharing this article on your social media with the hashtag #StopEcocide.