The Canadian mining company Belo Sun continues to threaten life in the Volta Grande do Xingu, and our campaign to halt the proposed largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil at the heart of the Amazon rainforest is in full swing. Over the past few months, our team has told the world about the reality of the negative impacts of this disastrous mining project on the affected territory and the people who live there, to counter Belo Sun’s false narrative.
In March of this year, we participated in a seminar organized by the Office of the Prosecutor General in Brasília, titled “The Future of Volta Grande do Xingu.” During this event, local leaders including riverine leaders, fishers, and Indigenous representatives shared their perspectives alongside experts, highlighting the existing impacts of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and emphasizing the lack of compliance with agreed-upon conditions for its construction.
In April, we participated in the Acampamento Terra Livre 2023, the largest gathering of Indigenous activists in Brazil, where we launched the Portuguese version of the report The Risks of Investing in Belo Sun. We received very positive feedback from Indigenous associations and allied civil society organizations attending, who expressed great interest in our report. Our Brazil Program Director, Ana Paula Vargas, presented the report on a panel alongside the Executive Committee of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous People (APIB), representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI).
We also met with FUNAI again to better understand how the experiences of “non-aldeados” (Indigenous people without demarcated lands) are being considered in the licensing process of Belo Sun, and we continued this conversation by supporting this group of Indigenous people in sending an official request to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) and FUNAI, urging them to conduct a survey of Indigenous families in the Volta Grande, a long-overdue process that has been pending since 2009.
Today, communities near the planned gold mine still lack information about the project and face intensified surveillance by the mining company. Belo Sun has also increased hiring and has caused an increase in migration to a region where social services no longer adequately meet the needs of the local population.
Demanding concrete actions
Initially, the position of Lula’s new federal government, especially the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) and the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), was positive, and the current administration committed to reviewing both administrative acts to ensure INCRA complies with its constitutional mandate to allocate land for agrarian reform and not for mining.
However, after four months of intense meetings and persistent calls for a firm and public stance, we, along with the other organizations that form the Volta Grande do Xingu Alliance, are issuing an open feedback letter to the government demanding concrete actions that fulfill the promises made throughout these months.
In response, we are ramping up our national advocacy efforts with Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the MDA, and FUNAI. We mobilized intensely around one issue in particular: that of occupied agrarian land settlements in the region being turned over to private industry, under an illegal agreement between INCRA and Belo Sun, undertaken during the Bolsonaro administration, as well as a controversial federal rule known as IN112. We participated in meetings with representatives from the Xingu Vivo Movement, our main local partner in the region, with the aim of annulling both administrative actions. While the agreement authorizes the concession of over 2,000 hectares of public land to the mining company without any participation from the 600 affected families, such as those in agrarian reform settlement, known as PA Ressaca, IN112 additionally allows the settlement areas to be exploited for mining, hydroelectric, and infrastructure projects.
Amazon Watch was also present in the Chamber of Deputies during a public hearing convened by the Mining Observatory and Sinal de Fumaça, for the launch of the report “Pure Dynamite: How Bolsonaro’s Government (2019-2022) Mineral Policy Set Up a Climate and Anti-Indigenous Bomb.”
At the event, Amazon Watch’s Brazil Legal Advisor Ana Alfinito and Campaign Advisor Gabriela Sarmet questioned representatives of Brazil’s National Mining Agency about the national mining model and denounced the Canadian mining company Belo Sun. We emphasized the complete infeasibility of this gold project in a region already weakened by the Belo Monte Dam and questioned the fallacy of the mining industry’s promises to become “sustainable.”
Most recently, we published a new article exposing the actions of Belo Sun with the Volta Grande do Xingu Alliance in the Canadian magazine Caminando, based in Montreal, Quebec. The theme of this issue is the Canadian mining industry in Latin America, and it is significant because of the relative scarcity of academic writing on the Belo Sun mining project.
We will continue to warn the world about the eco-genocidal threat of this mining project to the Xingu region. The risks involved in the Belo Sun Volta Grande project are too great, for the Amazon and for humanity. Our aim is to spark discussions on the socio-environmental impacts and mobilize efforts to preserve the Volta Grande do Xingu region and Amazon overall. Together, we can build a future in defense of life, for environmental and climate justice!
