Buenos Aires, Mar. 12, (dpa/GNA) – Illegal gold miners are destroying an area the size of four football pitches per day in the indigenous protected areas of the Brazilian rainforest, environmentalists said on Monday.
Last year, 1,410 hectares of land were destroyed in the territories of the indigenous Kayapó, Munduruku and Yanomami peoples in the Amazon region, the environmental organization Greenpeace announced, citing a new study.
“Every hour that gold prospectors are in the indigenous areas means that more people are threatened, more rivers are polluted and more biodiversity is lost,” said Greenpeace Brazil spokesman Jorge Eduardo Dantas.
So far, 26,000 hectares of land have already been destroyed by illegal mining in the indigenous protected areas.
In Brazil, all forms of mining are prohibited in indigenous protected areas. Nevertheless, according to Greenpeace, illegal mining has increased significantly again in recent years.
More and more gold prospectors have led to violence against indigenous people, pollution of rivers with mercury, deforestation and the loss of the cultural identity of the indigenous people, Greenpeace said.
GNA