Uncontrolled Illegal Mining and Garimpo in the Brazilian Amazon
Mining has played an important role in the economies of South American countries. Although industrial mining prevails in most countries, the expansion of garimpo activity has increased substantially. Recently, Brazil exhibited two moments of garimpo dominance over industrial mining: 1989-1997 and 2019-2022. While industrial mining sites occupied ~ 360 km<sup>2</sup> in 1985 but increased to 1800 km<sup>2</sup> in 2022, a 5-fold increase, garimpo mining area increased by ~ 1200%, from ~ 218 km<sup>2</sup> in 1985 to ~ 2627 km<sup>2</sup> in 2022. More than 91% of this activity is concentrated in the Amazon. Where almost 40% of the sites are five years old or younger, this proportion increases to 62% within Indigenous lands (ILs). Regarding the legal aspect, at least 77% of the 2022 extraction sites showed explicit signs of illegality. Particular attention must be given to the Kayapo, Munduruku, and Yanomami ILs. Together, they concentrate over 90% of the garimpo across ILs.
Authors
- Márcia C. Castro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4606-2795)
- Alexandre Santos Fernandes Filho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1684-3788)
- Maria Luize Pinheiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9673-7781)
- Luiz Cortinhas Ferreira Neto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8675-2283)
- Marcos Adami (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4247-4477)
- Claudio Persello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3742-5398)
- Arlesson Antonio de Almeida Souza
- Jeremias Feitosa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5228-7408)
- Aldebaro Klautau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7773-2080)
- Raian Vargas Maretto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4983-2700)
- Luis Waldyr Rodrigues Sadeck
- Cesar Guerreiro Diniz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7718-0992)
- Alfred A. Stein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9456-1233)
- Pedro Walfir Martins e Souza Filho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0252-808X)
- Diogo Corrêa Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1828-3910)
- Júlia Ascencio Cansado (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9335-8030)
- Andre Biehl
Institutions
- Amazon (United States) (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Vale Technological Institute (BR)
- GeoInformation (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Universidade Federal do Pará (BR)
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (BR)
- University of Twente (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54220-2
- Citations
- 23
- Primary Topic
- Mining and Resource Management
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.10
Funders
- Harvard University
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- University of Twente
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard University