Prospectors have not been working from home. While the world stopped because of COVID-19 in 2020, the search for ore buried on indigenous lands in the Amazon did not let up, reaching the highest number of requests in the last 24 years. Almost half of the requests — 71 out of 143 — filed at the National Mining Agency (ANM) last year are on indigenous lands where there is a record at the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) of isolated peoples, who are even more vulnerable to any kind of external disease, explain indigenous rights activists and researchers.
The interest of illegal mining in areas of isolated peoples is cited in the legal claim (ADPF 709) that the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and eight political parties presented to the Supreme Court (STF) in July last year, demanding measures from the federal government to avoid what they called "real risk of genocide" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was already entering its fifth month in Brazil. Even then, the government, as it would admit throughout the lawsuit, had not yet implemented protection measures in several lands that are home to isolated peoples.
This story excerpt was translated from Portuguese. To read the original story in full, visit Mongabay. The Rainforest Journalism Fund website is also available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and bahasa Indonesia.
Garimpeiro não faz home office. Enquanto o mundo parou por causa da covid-19, em 2020, a busca por minério enterrado em terras indígenas da Amazônia não deu trégua, atingindo o maior número de requerimentos nos últimos 24 anos. Quase metade dos pedidos protocolados na Agência Nacional de Mineração (ANM) — 71 de 143 — no ano passado estão sobre terras indígenas onde há registro na Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai) de povos isolados, ainda mais vulneráveis a qualquer tipo de doença externa, explicam indigenistas e pesquisadores.
O interesse da mineração ilegal em áreas de povos isolados é citada na ação (ADPF 709) que a Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib) e oito partidos políticos apresentaram ao Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), em julho do ano passado, cobrando medidas do governo federal para evitar o que chamaram de “risco real de genocídio” devido à pandemia de covid-19, que já entrava no seu quinto mês no Brasil. Mesmo assim, o governo, como admitiria ao longo do processo judicial, ainda não tinha implementado medidas de proteção em diversas terras que abrigam povos isolados.