{"id":50390063,"date":"2024-03-01T11:04:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T11:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogochino.net\/?p=390063"},"modified":"2024-04-23T10:59:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T10:59:35","slug":"390063-brazil-cerrado-iron-ore-mine-over-traditional-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/390063-brazil-cerrado-iron-ore-mine-over-traditional-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"In Brazil\u2019s Cerrado, an iron ore mine looms over traditional communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A long-running dispute continues to rage between companies trying to unblock one of Brazil\u2019s biggest mining projects and traditional communities who fear irreversible impacts on their ancestral territory as a result of the works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mining company Sul Americana de Metais (SAM), a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based private investment company Honbridge Holdings, and Lotus Brasil Com\u00e9rcio e Log\u00edstica, a logistics firm linked to SAM, plan to exploit 27.5 million tonnes of iron ore annually in the region of Vale das Cancelas, in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. A large part of this production is likely to ship to China, the company says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAM told Di\u00e1logo Chino that it was looking for new partners to help get the project off the ground. In addition to the mine and other major works, the project would have the largest tailings dam in the country<\/a>, with a capacity of 1.3 billion cubic metres \u2013 larger than the 62-million-cubic-metre dam that broke in Mariana in 2015, flooding 35 municipalities<\/a>. The companies behind the new project are also seeking approval for an environmental licence for the mining complex, which has proven controversial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, standing in their way are around 2,230 families<\/a> inhabiting the region, who say they will not accept being relocated or seeing their territory devastated. For this reason, local leaders and civil organisations have just concluded a protocol for free, prior and informed consultation with the communities about the project, as provided for in the International Labour Organisation\u2019s Convention 169 \u2013 the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989<\/a> \u2013 to which Brazil is a signatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Margarida Alves Collective, a grassroots group<\/a> of lawyers providing legal advice to social justice movements, explains that this consultation is a right of the communities, but the appropriate process had not been followed in the Vale das Cancelas \u2013 which they describe as a common reality in the country. \u201cThere are a number of projects being licensed throughout Brazil without the communities being included and respected,\u201d says Layza Santos, one of the collective\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim now is to take the case to the authorities in search of legal protection against the megaproject. \u201cFor our part, we\u2019re going to fight it as long as we have the strength,\u201d Marlene Ribeiro, a local leader and president of the Intermunicipal Council of Traditional Geraizeiro and Vacariano Territories, tells Di\u00e1logo Chino.<\/em> \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let them put an end to everything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council estimates that the works will require the forced relocation of at least 3,000 geraizeiros<\/em> and vacarianos<\/em>, peoples who have lived in the region for seven generations<\/a>, and that the project poses a threat to food crops<\/a> and traditional ways of life. The peoples occupy the plateaus of inland Brazil, where they raise cattle and other animals, in open and collective areas, over vast areas from the Cerrado savannah to the shrublands of the Caatinga biome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Man<\/div>
Traditional geraizeiro<\/em> and vacariano<\/em> communities raise cattle animals in shared areas, and have been doing so for generations. But the state has been slow to allocate territories to them and formalise land titles. (Image: Vanessa Nicolav \/ Brasil de Fato)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Land insecurity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like the majority of traditional populations in Brazil, the communities of the Vale das Cancelas are still seeking titles to the land that has been recognised as belonging to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, the 73 geraizeiro<\/em> communities that inhabit the region were finally recognised<\/a> by the State Commission for Traditional Peoples and Communities. But the state has been slow to allocate territory to the communities and formalise the land titles \u2013 its role under the law. For decades, the government\u2019s delay has fuelled<\/a> violent conflicts in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to community leaders, another important step in the process was recently completed: an anthropological report drawn up by the Federal University of Minas Gerais, with the active participation of the local population. The communities hope that the document will speed up the long-awaited regularisation of land ownership and the rightful recognition of the land deeds as theirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1970s, these communities, based in the north of Minas Gerais, have suffered from the advance of eucalyptus monoculture and land grabbing by companies and landowners, according to the Pastoral Land Commission<\/a> (CPT), an organisation that monitors rural conflicts in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Roadside<\/div>
\u2018Out with SAM\u2019 reads a sign by a road in Vale das Cancelas, protesting against the mining company Sul Americana de Metais. Local communities have already organised protests, and are asking for international conventions on free, prior and informed consultation to be respected. (Image: Comunidades Tradicionais Geraizeiras)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, they have been on the receiving end of attempts to build goodwill by the SAM mining company, which in 2008 won authorisation<\/a> from the federal government to begin mining surveys in the region. The Block 8 project, as it is called, is expected to cost<\/a> 7.25 billion reais (US$1.464 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSAM is hungry to mine here,\u201d said Ribeiro. \u201cIts employees drive around in pick-up trucks all the time, knocking on the doors of communities with documents of dubious origin and trying to win the trust of the families who will have to be removed. At Christmas, they handed out panettone to the adults and sweets to the children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2019, the company had already spent<\/a> the equivalent of almost US$148 million on mining research, engineering projects and operating expenses, but it is still struggling with the environmental licensing required for the project to progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planned mining complex<\/a> would comprise an open-pit mine, three water dams, pipelines, a power transmission line, a treatment plant and two tailings dams, one of which would be the largest in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map<\/div>
Data source: Public Defender\u2019s Office of Minas Gerais. Map: Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The watery pulp of the ore, the usual form in which the commodity is transported, would be moved via a 481-kilometre pipeline<\/a> \u2013 one of the longest in the world, if approved and completed. The intention is to transport the commodity from Minas Gerais to the port of Ilh\u00e9us, in the north-eastern state of Bahia \u2013 crossing 21 municipalities and the territories of other communities \u2013 to the international market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first version of the project was rejected by IBAMA, the federal environmental protection agency, due to its enormous size and potential environmental impacts. In 2017, SAM opened<\/a> Lotus Brasil Com\u00e9rcio e Log\u00edstica and changed its strategy: the two companies are now applying for separate licences for the pipeline and the mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Licensing for the project is currently the responsibility of the Minas Gerais State Environmental Foundation (FEAM), which told Di\u00e1logo Chino that the mine is in the preliminary analysis phase, the first stage of the process. SAM declined an interview, but said in a statement that it was assessing FEAM\u2019s analysis, which included a request for new technical studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining always comes before us<\/blockquote>Adair de Almeida, community leader in Vale das Cancelas<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the pipeline, FEAM still needs to discuss and formalise technical cooperation over the environmental impact study with INEMA, its counterpart in Bahia state, since the pipeline passes through both states. Lotus said in a statement that it is waiting for this cooperation agreement in order to proceed with the project, and that it plans to produce green hydrogen<\/a> from the treatment of waste generated by the transport of ore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies continue to present the project to government bodies in Minas Gerais<\/a> and Bahia<\/a>, but did not mention in their statement any possible negative impacts from the works on farming communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, community leader Adair de Almeida is critical of the fact that those involved have excluded the families from the process. \u201cThe villagers are out of the picture,\u201d he says. \u201cEconomic interests are above all else, and mining always comes before us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecological heritage under threat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A transitional region between the Cerrado and the Caatinga in the north-east, Vale das Cancelas has unique ecosystems such as the rocky campo rupestre<\/em> grasslands<\/a>, dozens of endangered plant species<\/a> and deposits of high-quality diamonds<\/a>. On the plateaus of these landscapes, geraizeiros<\/em> plant a range of medicinal plants and fruit trees such as pequi and buriti, and also raise animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yellow<\/div>
Flowers of the pequi, one of the fruit trees planted by geraizeiro<\/em> communities, on the plateaus of the Vale das Cancelas region, found between the Cerrado savannah and the shrublands of the Caatinga biome (Image: Fernando Paoliello<\/a> \/ Flickr<\/a>, CC BY NC<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For Almeida, the Cerrado, due to its ecological and social importance, should not host a development of the scale proposed by SAM and Lotus: \u201cLicensing these projects would be absurd. It\u2019s a devastation project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Block 8 could also reportedly impact<\/a> 138 springs, suppressing 57 of them in a semi-arid region that already suffers from water scarcity due to natural conditions, climate change that brings severe droughts, and the long-term impact of eucalyptus cultivation<\/a> to supply charcoal production. In the Jequitinhonha river basin, where the project would be built, several rivers that were perennial have become intermittent; streams have dried up in the region inhabited by the geraizeiros<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the worrying situation, the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency has granted SAM a licence to collect 51 million cubic metres a year \u2013 enough to supply<\/a> a city of 400,000 people in the same period of time \u2013 from a dam on the Jequitinhonha River, which gives its name to one of the most vulnerable regions in Minas Gerais.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woman<\/div>
A woman makes coffee on a traditional wood-burning stove, in the Lamar\u00e3o community in Vale das Cancelas. Many locals fear the impacts the iron mine could have on the environment and their livelihoods, especially on water supply in a region already affected by drought. (Image: Vanessa Nicolav \/ Brasil de Fato)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is a region \u201cimpoverished by misguided public policies,\u201d says Felipe Soares, an educator, activist and member of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB). \u201cNone of the big projects that have arrived have brought \u2018development\u2019,\u201d he notes, suggesting that strengthening family farming and the bioeconomy would be a more coherent approach to regional development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This large volume of water will be used both to wash the ore and to transport its watery pulp through the pipeline to the port in Bahia. The geraizeiros<\/em> fear that if the project receives approval to operate, there may be water for mining, but not for supplying families and their fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast year, we were in a state of emergency for six months because of drought,\u201d Almeida recalls. This year is no different: the municipalities of the Vale das Cancelas continue to be affected by severe drought, according to an update<\/a> from the Minas Gerais Civil Defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China and iron ore <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

China is the world\u2019s largest consumer<\/a> of iron ore, largely destined for its huge steel industry that accounts for over half of all global production. Brazil is the second-largest<\/a> exporter of the product, behind Australia, with China its biggest customer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n