SÃO PAULO — After years of delays in protecting the Munduruku indigenous people from the illegal gold mining and mercury use that is decimating the Tapajós River basin, Brazil’s independent prosecutors said there was now a scheduled date to begin expelling miners from the Tapajós River basin. Munduruku Indigenous Territory. Although the precise date and operation remain confidential, government and community stakeholders are gathering preliminary data to plan the expulsion of minors, sources share with Mongabay.

The Munduruku and their ancestral lands in the Amazon rainforest have been battling illegal gold miners for decades. When miners use mercury to extract gold from the ore, the toxin flows into the river, affecting the communities who drink the water and consume its fish. From babies to the elderly, studies have detected the presence of this heavy metal in their body. Mercury affects the central nervous system, causing brain damage and malformations. cross the placental barrier to reach the fetus.

Munduruku Indigenous Territory was officially recognized twenty years ago, but the miners came anyway. Despite a 2020 Federal Supreme Court order from the federal government to evict miners from Munduruku and other indigenous lands “in a more critical condition” (with a request made again in 2023), very little has been done so far.

In addition to the STF, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Pará Prosecutor’s Office have been demanding for years the removal of illegal miners from Munduruku lands. The land, measuring 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres), is the second largest area of ​​illegal mining of any indigenous territory in Brazil and is home to 6,500 people.

“The (indigenous) communities are demanding measures,” said Thaís Medeiros da Costa, federal prosecutor at the Pará Prosecutor’s Office.

The president elected in 2022, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, initially focused on the expulsion of illegal occupants of the Yanomami territory (then occupied by around 20,000 miners) and the Apyterewa And Trincheira Bacajá land (the latter occupied by land grabbers and cattle herders).

“The current administration took over a destroyed Brazil and had to prioritize the most serious case, the Yanomami territory. But if the eviction had been carried out on schedule, the other land files would have been more advanced,” said Luísa Molina, deputy coordinator of the Xingu program at the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA).

“This work requires cooperation, and there has been a lack of logistical support from the military, which has made the process longer than expected and necessary. »

The operation

In a memo to Mongabay, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples said: “The federal government will comply with the court’s decision. However, this is a confidential operation, so we are not allowed to disclose dates before operations begin (in Munduruku country).

A coordination meeting to plan the operation will be held on November 7, 2024, declared a federal government press briefing. According to Reuters, the operation will involve federal agencies ranging from the Defense Ministry to Funai (the Brazilian indigenous affairs agency).

Also contacted by Mongabay, Ibama, the federal environmental agency, said the removal process “will be coordinated by the Indigenous Land Removal Committee, established to comply with the STF decision. In this context, Ibama’s actions will follow the committee’s planning.

The agency added that it is essential to complete the expulsion of miners from the territory before implementing any environmental monitoring activities.

Academic studies suggest predatory fish species (at the top of the food chain) commonly consumed by the Munduruku from a young age have the highest mercury levels due to their consumption of other contaminated fish. The black piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus) had the the highest level mercury among species, analyzed an article.

“The elimination of invaders is a more immediate and short-term act, but it is also necessary to identify the populations most affected and the treatment that will be administered to them,” said Costa, of the MPF-PA, who refers to everyone. contaminated indigenous lands in the Tapajós River basin.

“All of this requires data,” she continued. “Much of the information produced comes from academia, but it does not translate into official data that feeds systems such as SISSOLO (Health Surveillance Information System for Populations Exposed to Contaminated Soils) and BDNAC (Database on contaminated areas). The government must generate data to implement public policies.

This month, in November, Ibama and ICMBio, the conservation units agency, will present the first data from the most contaminated areas of Munduruku lands – recognized or not – of the Tapajós basin. This will be presented at the Pará Forum to combat the impacts of mercury contamination in the Tapajós region, created last year by federal and state prosecutors’ offices and civil society organizations. Indigenous representatives, as well as the Department of Environment and Sustainable Development of Pará, are participating in discussions on the location of contaminated areas, how to combat the presence of mercury in rivers and the treatment of indigenous peoples.

The Ministry of Health reports that between January and October 2024, 381 cases of “toxic effects of mercury and its compounds” were recorded in the Indigenous Health Care Information System (IASI) in the lands of Mundurku and Sawré Muybu.

In response to questions about what action the Health Ministry is taking regarding mercury contamination, its communications office said “efforts are being made” to implement the directive. Minamata Convention on Mercury to regulate and eradicate the use of mercury.

“The ministry is currently reviewing the health sector plan with representatives from academia and civil society in the mercury working group. The goal is to increase demands for Indigenous health and develop a strategic plan for comprehensive health care, surveillance and promotion measures for populations exposed to mercury.

Another land Munduruku

According to civil society and human rights sources, formal demarcation is essential to protect Munduruku land from miners.

If the Munduruku indigenous territory is recognized, the Sawré Muybu indigenous lands (also affected by significant mercury contamination) have been waiting for more than ten years for demarcation and official recognition.

Molina, of the ISA, pointed out that although they face the same problem of illegal miners and await eviction, the two indigenous lands have different land situations.

“According to Brazilian law, the removal of invaders from indigenous land can only be done when it is officially recognized by presidential decree, which is the case for Munduruku land, but not for Sawré Muybu. This is why it is essential that the government quickly completes the demarcation of the second territory.

This suggests that the removal of miners from Sawré Muybu indigenous lands will begin after the president recognizes the territory.

On September 25, 2024, eleven years after Funai completed the identification of the territory to be demarcated, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security declared the area is the permanent possession of the inhabitants of Sawré Muybu lands.

All that remains is for Funai to administratively demarcate the borders and for President Lula to officially recognize the territory. Mongabay has not been given a date as to when this will be completed.

Banner image: Illegal mining in the indigenous territory of Munduruku in 2020. Image by Marizilda Cruppe/Amazônia Real/Amazon Watch.

Besieged by mining and megaprojects, the Munduruku push for land rights in the Amazon

Quotes

De Vasconcellos, et al. (2021). Assessment of health risks associated with exposure to mercury from fish consumption in Munduruku indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 7940.

Kempton, JW et al. (2021). An assessment of health outcomes and methylmercury exposure among Munduruku indigenous women of childbearing age and their children under 2 years of age. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19), 10091.

Bello, TCS et al. (2023). Mercury exposure among women of childbearing age in Rondônia State, Amazon region, Brazil. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6), 5225.

De Oliveira et al. (2021). Neurological impacts of chronic exposure to methylmercury in Munduruku indigenous adults: somatosensory, motor and cognitive abnormalities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19), 10270.

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