Gold mining in the Amazon jungle causes malnutrition in indigenous people in Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has accused Jair Bolsonaro of facilitating the extinction of the indigenous Yanomami people, who live along the border between Venezuela and Brazil.

The Yanomami people lived in almost total isolation until the 1980s, when gold was found on their territory. Since then, some 40,000 illegal miners have entered its territory, spreading diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria and polluting rivers with mercury in their search for gold.

On January 20, the Brazilian Ministry of Health declared a medical emergency in the territory. According to reports, 570 children died of malnutrition and preventable diseases during the last four years of Bolsonaro’s presidency, which, according to Lula, actively ignored illegal mining activities and the ensuing humanitarian emergency.

Since the 1990s, several studies have been carried out that have raised awareness of the negative effects that illegal gold mining has had on the health of the Yanomami population, made up of some 30,000 people. These studies show that gold mining may be linked to tuberculosis, malaria, mercury poisoning, and malnutrition.

A study published in 1997 by Brazilian researchers in the journal PNAS found that tuberculosis, which raged in Europe and the United States in the 18th century, only began to spread in the territory of the Yanomami people after outsiders came into contact with them. in the middle of the 20th century.

In the decades since the start of gold mining – and logging – in the area, and especially in recent years, researchers have observed a “remarkable” increase in malaria cases among the Yanomami.

Between 2016 and 2020 the number of miners in the area increased. At the same time, the number of malaria cases rose 1,090% in indigenous areas and 75,576% in mining areas, the researchers wrote.

Miners extract gold by mixing liquid mercury into excavated sediment from Amazon rivers. Its illegal use has contaminated Yanomami territories for hunting, fishing, and gathering, and has led to the deforestation of large swaths of nearby forest.

Paulo Basta, a doctor and scientist at the National School of Public Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil, has identified abnormally high levels of mercury in the Yanomami populations closest to the mining areas.

Another study published by Basta in 2019 revealed that the nutritional deficits of Yanomami children they found “[eran] the most severe ever reported among indigenous children of the American continent.

Historically, the Yanomami have supported themselves from the land. They eat wild game – birds, pigs and fish – and fruit from orchards. “The problem is that the miners have destroyed the jungle,” Christine Haverkamp tells DW via voicemail. And she adds: “In many parts of Yanomami territory, miners have not only disrupted but destroyed the food chain, making it impossible for the Yanomami to sustain themselves off the land.”

During Bolsonaro’s presidency, Yanomami territory became an area for armed miners where they think they can do whatever they want, says Haverkamp, ​​who warns: “If the Yanomami try to defend their territory, they kill them.” This explains why some Indigenous people have collaborated with the miners because they don’t have any protection.