How mining companies and international investors drive
Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon
Rivers contaminated, forests destroyed, entire communities devastated. Industrial mining accumulates an enormous socio-environmental impact in Brazil, leaving a trail of disasters and human rights violations in its wake. The fourth edition of the Complicity in Destruction report, launched in February 2022 in a partnership between the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB) and Amazon Watch, revisits the trajectory of large-scale mining in Brazil, in particular its track record of encroaching onto Indigenous peoples and the territories they preserve.
At the heart of the government's intense agenda to dismantle environmental legislation and support the strengthening of the mineral sector is the opening of Indigenous territories to industrial and wildcat mining, which would lead to the collapse of essential ecosystems and the social and cultural devastation of the peoples inhabiting them. According to researchers,
the passing of Bill 191/2020 could cause the loss of 160,000 km² of Amazon rainforest. Deforestation linked to mining in the Amazon has already increased by 62% in 2021 when compared to 2018, the year of Bolsonaro's election to the presidency of Brazil.
Complicity in Destruction IV shows that, despite announcements by large mining companies such as Vale and Anglo American that they would abandon their interests in Indigenous Lands, thousands of mining applications overlapping these territories remain active in the National Mining Agency's database. As of November 5, 2021, there were almost 2500 active mining applications from 570 companies, associations and cooperatives, overlapping 261 Indigenous Lands in the ANM’s system, covering an area almost as large as England (10.1 million hectares).
Many of these companies have already appeared in previous editions of this series, due to their history of destroying the Amazon and violating socio-environmental rights. This report follows up on these complaints by mapping the mining interests in Indigenous Lands of mining companies
Vale,
Anglo American,
Belo Sun,
Potássio do Brasil,
e
Mineração Taboca/Mamoré Mineração
Metalurgica (both from Minsur Group),
Glencore,
AngloGold Ashanti
and
Rio Tinto.
To carry out this mapping, we developed, in partnership with the Mined Amazon project (InfoAmazonia), an interactive panel that allows real-time research at the ANM base for new requests for mining research and exploration in Indigenous Lands.
Case studies, which report in detail the impacts and violations carried out by some of these companies, complete the picture of the advance of the mining giants on these protected territories, with strong support from the Bolsonaro government and with funding from large international capital.
With testimonies in text and video of Indigenous peoples such as the Xikrin, Kayapó, Munduruku, Waimiri-Atroari, Pataxó, Mura, and riverside communities, we show how the presence and activities of these companies forever changes the lives of these peoples and communities. And, most importantly, we identify the main international Financiers behind these companies. Between 2016 and 2021, the companies highlighted in this report received USD 54.1 billion in financing from Brazil and abroad, in shares, bonds, loans and underwriting services.
The publication offers urgent recommendations to these actors, as well as to the Brazilian government and the international community. Examples of resistance strategies by Indigenous peoples in the face of mining and for the protection of their territories are also presented—alternatives that counter the extractive ferocity and defend life.
The future of Indigenous peoples and their territories is not for sale.
Here you can find a summary of the report contents.
Download the PDF to gain access to the full text of the publication.
The Complicity in Destruction IV report is published after a historic year for the struggle of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil. The year 2021 saw, on the one hand, the expansion of pressures and setbacks against the rights of Indigenous peoples, carried out by forces that covet to turn their territories into areas of exploitation and profit. On the other hand, the mobilization of the Indigenous peoples in Brazil has reached unprecedented levels. Led by APIB and its regional associations, the struggle of Indigenous peoples has gained even more national and international visibility, in an endless dispute against the Bolsonaro government, which elected Indigenous peoples as its number one enemies. The Brazilian government has sided with agribusiness, the mining industry, illegal miners and loggers. This current alliance represents the perpetuation of the colonial invasion of Indigenous lands that managed to remain under protection.
Mining is a primary activity, which has its roots in the early colonial invasion and, to this day, continues to cause death and devastation to the environment and to Indigenous peoples. It destroys territories and poisons the waters and everything that depends on them, ravaging communities in its surroundings. Industrial mining imposes a huge cost on everyone to generate profits that are concentrated in only a few pockets. At a time of climate crisis, in which major mining companies are positioning themselves as central actors in the production of renewable energies, we need to make visible the impacts of this unbridled exploitation, especially on Indigenous territories—key areas for containing deforestation and, therefore, for balancing the climate of the entire planet.
As the Brazilian Congress discusses bills such as PL 191/2020, which opens up Indigenous territories to mining and other extractive activities, and PL 490/2007, which changes the rules for the demarcation of Indigenous Lands, the entire mining industry, its Financiers and the international community need to take a step further and ensure that mining stays off Indigenous lands. This is a commitment we all have to make to the peoples that colonization has tried to exterminate throughout history and who, despite this, go on living and offering alternatives to the paradigm of exploitation and devastation of our planet.
Read the full note in the PDF
Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB)
Amazon Watch
Industrial mining is an activity that causes deep social and environmental impacts that extend far beyond the territories where companies operate, and which can last for decades even after exploration ends. These impacts are felt particularly by Indigenous peoples, and have intensified in recent years in Brazil. Despite all these impacts, mining does not deliver the development it promises. See some of the impacts that are detailed in the report:
Mining is responsible for the emission of 4% to 7% of greenhouse gases released globally on the planet. Considering indirect emissions, this number rises to 28%. The world's 16 largest mining companies release around
2.5 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent per year. Mining requires large amounts of fossil fuels across its operation, consumes a
huge amount of electricity, and
produces more tailings than ore
(toxic waste that takes decades to degrade).
In addition, the world's main mineral reserves are located in the Global South. In many cases, they are located within tropical forests and protected areas, such as Indigenous Lands, which are
important carbon stocks, playing a central role in climate regulation. The advance of mineral exploration in these territories, in the unbridled search for ore deposits, will deepen the effects of climate change and move the planet away from the goals set by the Paris Agreement.
Between 2015 and 2020, mining activities deforested 405.36 km² of the Brazilian Amazon, around 40,500 football fields. In 2021, mining devastated 125 km², the highest mark since the beginning of the historical series of the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter), of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). These figures, however, are underestimations, as they refer only to the direct impact of the activity in the places where the forest is cut down for mineral exploration. Studies claim that large-scale mining operations in the Amazon can cause deforestation up to 12 times greater than the area officially granted for exploration. With these projections, it is expected that between 2005 and 2015, legal mining alone has already caused the loss of 11,670 km² of the Amazon rainforest, equivalent to almost eight times the city of São Paulo lost over a span of ten years.
Contamination of rivers and water courses by by-products and tailings is one of the main impacts of mining activities. Mining operations demand large volumes of water, which end up transporting contaminants generated at all stages of production. Overall, this water is discarded in the tailings basin, whose useful life can extend for decades even after extraction is completed. Several communities that live in the vicinity of mining areas denounce this contamination, such as the Xikrin of the Cateté River, affected by Vale, and the Waimiri-Atroari, impacted by the activities of Mineração Taboca. In the case of gold mining, mercury contamination has already reached alarming levels in Amazonian rivers such as the Tapajós and the Uraricoera, compromising the health of Indigenous and riverine communities.
Mining is one of the deadliest industries for activists across the planet, alongside logging, dam construction and agribusiness. Of the 227 defenders who lost their lives in 2020, 17 were killed in mining-related conflicts. Also in 2020, 722 cases of mining-related conflicts were registered, affecting more than one million people in the country. More than 400 of these occurrences involved foreign mining giants and impacted groups such as quilombolas, riverine communities, small farmers and Indigenous peoples.
Industrial mining profoundly alters the social dynamics of communities around its areas, affecting the individual and collective mental health of these communities, their modes of organization and, therefore, their sheer survival in such territories. In the case of Indigenous peoples, we can mention disruptions such as the violation of sacred sites or the limitation of access to them due to movement restrictions imposed by these enterprises; the impossibility of carrying out festivities and rituals in degraded places; disruptions in community life due to the transit of people and equipment close to Indigenous lands; exhaustion due to routine meetings with companies; and the impact on their political self-organization, among others.
Despite announcements by large mining companies that they would abandon their interests in Brazilian Indigenous Lands, thousands of mining applications with interference on these territories remain active in the National Mining Agency's database.
The mining companies highlighted in this report, in addition to a history of conflicts, violations and devastation, had
225 active applications to search for ores overlapping 34 Indigenous Lands as of November 5, 2021 an area corresponding to 5,700 km² (more than three times the City of London).
The ILs most affected by these requests are Xikrin do Cateté and Waimiri Atroari, both with 34 applications each.
Sawré Muybu (21) and Apyterewa (13) complete the list of lands most affected by these requests. The ethnic group most impacted by these mining applications is the
Kayapó, with 73 requests. Following are the Waimiri Atroari (34),
Munduruku (25), Mura (14), Parakanã (13), among others. At least five applications are in areas where Indigenous people of the
Apiaká ethnic group live in voluntary isolation.
Learn more about the impact some of these companies have on Indigenous territories and traditional populations in the case studies in this report.
The new Mined Amazon dashboard, developed in partnership with InfoAmazonia for this report, shows in real time the applications filed with the ANM that overlap Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, with the possibility of using search filters by companies and territories. Browse the interactive dashboard to find out more about these and other mining requests that threaten protected areas in the Legal Amazon.
Go to the dashboard and do your own research.
The expansion of mineral frontiers over new areas, including intact forests and Indigenous lands, depends on funding from some of the world's largest banks and investment managers. Many of them have already been featured in previous editions of the Complicity in Destruction report, which demonstrates the urgency with which they need to commit to actual measures in order to change.
The mining companies highlighted in this report have received a total of $54.1 billion in financing from Brazil and internationally (when combining the banks and asset managers that own shares, bonds, or provide them loans or underwriting).
For the second year in a row, our findings indicate that major institutions headquartered in the United States continue to be the leading financiers of mining-driven destruction, with U.S.-based companies holding the most significant shares and bonds, or offering the largest loans or underwriting, to the mining companies highlighted in this report. The financial firms Capital Group, BlackRock and Vanguard invested a combined US$14.8 billion in mining companies with interests on Indigenous lands and a history of rights violations.
Brazilian financial institutions are notably present on the list of the five largest financiers. The Brazilian pension fund PREVI (Banco do Brasil’s Employee Pension Fund), is responsible for the largest investments in these mining companies, with over US$7.4 billion, followed by the private bank Bradesco, with almost US$4.4 billion
The Complicity in Destruction IV report also presents data by types of financing, listing financial corporations among the TOP 20 creditors (loans and underwriting services) and TOP 20 investors (stocks and bonds). To access all survey data and charts, including the differences between investment and credit figures,
click here,
or download the PDF.
TOP 5 FINANCIERS - CREDITORS AND INVESTORS
US$ million (January 2016 - October 2021)
Source: Profundo Research and Advice. Complicity in Destruction IV - Financial Links. Nov. 2021.
Indigenous peoples have resisted the threats posed by industrial and wildcat mining for centuries. Despite the most recent move by Bolsonaro’ government to open its territories to mining operations—supported by local politicians and entrepreneurs, multinational companies, sectors of the financial market and even foreign ambassadors—its strategy of fabricating popular support for this agenda is crumbling in the face of the mobilization of Indigenous peoples.
The main Indigenous organizations in Brazil, such as APIB and the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), as well as associations representing various ethnic groups—such as the Munduruku, the Yanomami, and the Pataxó peoples, among others—have bluntly made the case against mining and garimpo. In addition to nationwide mobilizations, Indigenous peoples from all over Brazil and Latin America have found different ways to resist mining in their territories and to seek out alternatives to this predatory development model. Alternatives that place the sustainability of life, and not profit, as the main goal.
Despite the mining sector acting to formally commit to assume social and environmental responsibilities, its operational model remains unsustainable, incompatible with the protection of critical ecosystems, such as the Amazon, and the peoples that inhabit them. The giants of the mining industry, their financiers, the governments that regulate the activity and all the actors in this chain need to step up their game to revert this scenario. The recommendations below indicate paths for this necessary change for mining companies; banks and investment managers; for the Brazilian Government; and for the international community. Download the PDF to access the recommendations.