Editor\u2019s note<\/p>\n
\nThis article is a summary of the fourth episode of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada, a new podcast series by Di\u00e1logo Chino, available in Portuguese only. Listen here<\/a>.
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At the beginning of this year, however, images of pollution staining these paradise-like beaches made national news<\/a>. Soon after, inspections<\/a> by the Federal Police and ICMBio, the government biodiversity protection agency, concluded that the river\u2019s turning to a brown-reddish hue was caused by illegal mining and deforestation, which had been occurring for hundreds of kilometres along the Tapaj\u00f3s basin.<\/p>\n After an initial gold rush in the 1980s, mining activity has since expanded<\/a> across the Amazon region, especially within indigenous lands. Faced with obsolete regulations and the dismantling of environmental supervision<\/a>, the activity has been free to advance, and is a source of ever-escalating conflicts. In Alter do Ch\u00e3o, the pollution of a picture-postcard landscape has exacerbated local tensions. <\/div>\u201cWe saw the difficulty for our fish here. The river was no longer giving the same quantity and variety of species,\u201d says Jadson Munhoz, from the indigenous village of Solim\u00f5es on the banks of the Tapaj\u00f3s River. Over the summer months, he witnessed pollution take over the waters around his fishing community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not against progress, but we want to be heard too,\u201d Munhoz tells us.<\/p>\n In the history of colonisation of the Amazon since the era of Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship (1964-1985), mining, its impacts and characteristics tell a familiar tale. The activity is the focus of the fourth episode of Di\u00e1logo Chino\u2019s new Portuguese-language podcast series, Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada<\/a>, produced in collaboration with Trov\u00e3o M\u00eddia.<\/p>\n Across five episodes \u2013 all accompanied by English articles \u2013 we travel along the BR-163 highway, a route that has been central to the development of the Amazon and its exploitation over the last five decades. In the first three parts of the series, we looked at the history and complexities of soybean<\/a>, livestock farming<\/a> and logging<\/a> supply chains. <\/div>This latest episode takes us to the Tapaj\u00f3s Mineral Province, a 90,000-square-kilometre region rich in gold and other minerals, south of the cities of Santar\u00e9m and Itaituba.<\/p>\n We travelled along the Transgarimpeira, a road that cuts across the BR-163, and one that has served as an axis for the expansion of the gold mining. On a recent flyover<\/a>, it was possible to spot garimpos<\/em> \u2013 the name given to informal, artisanal and small-scale miners \u2013 on both sides of the 200-kilometre-long dirt road.<\/p>\n In the early 1980s, the mining population in the region jumped from 140,000 to 240,000. It was the era of Serra Pelada<\/a>, the gold mine in southern Par\u00e1 that was immortalised by the lens of photographer Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado<\/a>, but that would later be closed by the government. Fearing the threat of conflicts with the thousands of miners who would be left without options, the Ministry of Mines and Energy created the Tapaj\u00f3s mining reserve and began construction of the Transgarimpeira highway near Moraes de Almeida, a district in the Par\u00e1 city of Itaituba.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents came here in the 1980s. I grew up among the bosses of the mines, the owners of the mines. I started working directly when I turned 18,\u201d says Lucas Peralta, born and raised in Itaituba.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Garimpos<\/em> that used to operate legally became irregular with the creation of environmental reserves in the mid-2000s. That is what happened to Peralta’s family. \u201cMy family were garimpo<\/em> before I was born, almost forty years ago. And they had documentation issued by the federal government itself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Peralta has \u201cdone it all\u201d in the sector. With the Tapaj\u00f3s Mineral Development Institute, he now advocates for regulatory policies and less polluting practices for mining. To develop the activity legally, it is necessary to have a permit granted by the National Mining Agency. But the permitting system has loopholes: it does not establish a production limit, nor a mineral extraction technique. Although it provides for ore tracking, the control of this is also flawed.<\/p>\n According to prosecutor Gabriel Dalla, of the Federal Public Ministry of Par\u00e1, there have been attempts to regularise the area that have not advanced. \u201cThere was an intention to try to regulate, to create an impact zone around the Transgarimpeira. But obviously this causes major problems,\u201d he says. These risks include setting legal precedents for mining to occupy more protected areas.<\/p>\n Thus, illegal mining continues to thrive. About 30% of the 158 tonnes of gold produced in the last year and a half in Brazil had evidence of irregularities, according to a recent study<\/a> by the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The Itaituba region alone concentrated 75% of Brazil’s irregular gold, according to the survey.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the tailings from illegal mining may contain mercury, a metal used to separate gold from the earth, which poses health risks. A study<\/a> by the Federal University of Western Par\u00e1 examined the situation in eight communities of Tapaj\u00f3s and Santar\u00e9m. Of the 462 adults tested, 75% had mercury levels in their blood above the World Health Organization’s safe limit. Among the ribeirinho<\/em> communities that reside along the riverbanks, this rate reached 90%.<\/p>\n Intoxication is caused by the consumption of fish from waters in which mercury has been dumped. The symptoms found in contaminated people range from dizziness and tremors to neurological changes, especially in children and pregnant women. <\/div>Regardless of the risks, mining still attracts new hopefuls looking for better prospects. \u201cIf you\u2019re illiterate, it’s the only profession that gives you the chance to improve your life without discrimination,\u201d says Let\u00edcia Estrela, herself a miner and current candidate for the legislative assembly in Par\u00e1 state, who also defends regularisation of the activity.<\/p>\n \u201cI am speaking as a woman, as a mother, as a miner. Our survival depends on this, depends on you, so look at us as human beings, that\u2019s what I ask,\u201d Estrella said during a recent public hearing on the issue.<\/p>\n Episode four of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada is now available, in Portuguese only, on Spotify<\/a>, Apple<\/a>, Amazon<\/a> and Deezer<\/a>. The fifth and final episode and accompanying article will be released on Thursday 29 September.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fourth part of our Amazon series visits a gold mining reserve created by Brazil\u2019s military government in the 1970s, where digging continues to advance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50059256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[50039902],"tags":[506,566,587],"country":[50000021],"class_list":["post-50058827","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forests","tag-amazon","tag-mining","tag-rivers","country-brazil"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"vista](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Vista-aerea-Alter-do-Chao_FlaviaMilhorance-scaled.jpg\")
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