The non-governmental organization (NGO) Greenpeace Brasil found 176 excavators in illegal mining in the Yanomami, Kayapó and Munduruku indigenous lands (TI) between 2021 and 2023. As stated in the report Stop The Machines! For an Amazon free of mining released on Wednesday (12), 75 vehicles (42.6% of the total) are from the Hyundai HCE Brasil brand.
Prepared with contributions from the East Asia Greenpeace team, the document highlights that each machine can cost more than R$ 700,000 and represents a great investment, because it does in just one day what three people do in 40. According to the NGO, the The largest fleet of excavators is in the Kayapó TI, which is the target of disputes by loggers and the steel industry.
In 35 years, illegal mining grew 1,217% on indigenous lands in the Legal Amazon, reveals a study by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) and the University of South Alabama, in the United States.
Specialists constantly point out the relationship between activity in the mineral sector and deforestation, and the numbers confirm the fact. In the interval between October 2018 and December 2022, for example, deforestation resulting from illegal mining in the Yanomami TI up 309%, according to a survey prepared by the Hutukara Associação Yanomami. In December 2022, the devastated area was 5,053.82 hectares, compared to 1,236 hectares detected at the beginning of monitoring.
One of the aspects that arise in the midst of discussions that permeate the report concerns the movement of excavators. For Greenpeace, it is possible to trace the machines. In the case of Hyundai HCE Brasil, the NGO informs that it has a remote management system, called Hi Mate, which uses GPS to collect data. The tool would also be able to issue a command to stop the machines from working. And this is what the NGO demands from companies that manufacture excavators: that the industry stop selling units that are used for illegal mining and paralyze the machines, when they are working for that purpose, when they are located in that context.
According to the report, the machines found began to be seen in Terra Yanomami from the second half of last year. Four of them were found on a clandestine road. Close to the site, a group of indigenous people live in voluntary isolation. “As can be seen, illegal mining is investing in the construction of roads within intact forests to take the excavators into the interior of indigenous territories”, warns the NGO.
“The introduction of these machines helps to explain the very rapid and very violent expansion of this activity [garimpo ilegal] in the Amazon,” said Greenpeace Brazil’s program director, Leandro Ramos, to Brazil Agency.
The report contacted Hyundai, but the company did not respond until the publication of this article.
