Socio-environmental assessment of vulnerability to mining in the Brazilian Amazon

In Brazil, the Amazon biome concentrates the country's greatest biological diversity and is home to extensive Conservation Units, Indigenous Lands and Quilombola Territories. In recent years, the expansion of legal and illegal mining has intensified environmental degradation, increased territorial conflicts and exposed institutional limitations on control and enforcement. Few studies to date have investigated the multidimensional nature of threats posed to indigenous community. Thus, this study aimed to assess the spatial distribution of vulnerability to mining across the Amazon biome using an integrated index that combines environmental sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. The study methodology comprised five phases: 1) Geospatial database Consolidation; 2) Reclassification of mining mapping; 3) Adaptation of the IPCC Theoretical Vulnerability Model; 4) Calculation of the Vulnerability to Mining Index (VMI); and 5) Spatial analysis of critical areas in the biome. High and very high vulnerability categories were mainly found in the states of Pará, Amazonas, Roraima and Mato Grosso, especially in cells overlapping socio-environmentally sensitive areas such as the APA do Tapajós, FLONA do Jamaxim, FLONA do Crepori, the Munduruku Indigenous Land, Kayapó Indigenous Land and the Quilombola Territories of Oriximiná. These regions coincide with recent records of accelerated deforestation, mercury contamination, invasions of garimpo, and federal operations against illegal mining, reinforcing the consistency of the VMI with independent evidence. The study is an initial tool for understanding how mining pressures interact with ecological fragility and institutional capacity, generating key information to guide monitoring strategies, territorial planning, and environmental protection policies in the Brazilian Amazon.