On 24 November, Brazil’s federal public prosecutor’s office (MPF) called upon a number of public agencies, including the army, the institute for the environmental protection of the Amazon (Ipaam), and the federal environmental regulator (Ibama), to work together to halt an illegal gold rush currently underway on the Madureira River, one of the Amazon River’s largest tributaries.
Analysis:
Hundreds of dredging rafts have converged around the community of Rosarinho in the municipality of Autazes, Amazonas state, in the last fortnight following rumours that gold had been found in the area. The scale of this illegal gold rush and the authorities’ failure to act to contain it are testimony to the permissive atmosphere currently surrounding environmental crimes in the Amazon.
- NGO Greenpeace Brasil flew over the area on 23 November and confirmed that at least 300 rafts are illegally hoovering the riverbed for gold, some 110 km east of the state capital Manaus. Photographs show the flotilla of barges stretching the width of the river, in what has been compared to a floating neighbourhood.
- “While the entire world is looking for solutions to the climate crisis, Brazil is investing in the opposite. What we saw while flying over was a crime unfolding in broad daylight, without the slightest embarrassment”, Danicley de Aguiar, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Brasil’s Amazon campaign, said. Aguiar blames President Jair Bolsonaro, who has hollowed out environmental law enforcement agencies and emboldened illegal miners and other criminals with his talk of developing the Amazon, for the current invasion on the Madureira River.
- According to press reports, state authorities which have been approached regarding the gold rush, including Ibama and the Ipaam, have said that they have been made aware of the situation in recent days and are gathering information. Aguiar accuses the government of failing to take action. The MPF is now recommending that the police, the army, and environmental agencies take urgent coordinated action to “repress and disarticulate” the invasion of illegal gold miners.
Looking Ahead: If no action is taken before the dredging rafts move on to their next mining spot, it will serve as further confirmation that the Bolsonaro government says one thing in international fora and does another at home where the environmental protection of the Amazon is concerned.