Abstract
Increased prices and political pressure are boosting illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon, threatening forests, indigenous people, and conservation of biodiversity in protected areas. The rate of illegal mining deforestation increased more than 90% from 2017 to 2020, reaching 101.7 km2 annually in 2020 compared to 52.9 km2 annually in 2017. In that period, illegal mining deforestation rate grew more than the rate of clearing within mining leases. While formal mining is required to comply with environmental regulations, most small-scale or artisanal mining and especially illegal mining areas are abandoned after reserves are exhausted, without proper rehabilitation. Deforestation due to illegal mining is likely to increase in the next years, calling for coordination between local and regional policies as well as for strengthening and expanding international mechanisms to increase traceability of mineral supply chains with certification schemes to help to curb illegal mining.
Highlights
Increased prices and political pressure are boosting illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon, threatening forests, indigenous people, and conservation of biodiversity in protected areas
1 Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil consequences, effects such as water contamination and increased sedimentation can be traced far beyond the mining sites, threatening communities and ecosystems hundreds of kilometers away (Alvarez-Berríos and Aide 2015; Sánchez-Cuervo et al 2020). These small-scale activities are claimed to cause minor direct adverse impacts on forests (World Bank 2019); they can lead to extensive environmental impacts when associated with other drivers of change, such as large infrastructure development (Sánchez-Cuervo et al 2020)
PRODES provides the annual extent of forest cover and deforestation rates (INPE 2017), and DETER-B (Diniz et al 2015) issues daily warnings of deforestation to support direct field inspections and control (Assis et al 2019)
Summary
Increased prices and political pressure are boosting illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon, threatening forests, indigenous people, and conservation of biodiversity in protected areas. Illegal gold mining has expanded significantly in the Amazon in the last decade (Asner et al 2013; Alvarez-Berríos and Aide 2015; Asner and Tupayachi 2016), up to 18% annually in some regions (Swenson et al 2011). These small-scale activities are claimed to cause minor direct adverse impacts on forests (World Bank 2019); they can lead to extensive environmental impacts when associated with other drivers of change, such as large infrastructure development (Sánchez-Cuervo et al 2020).
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