Brazil Natives Confront Illegal Gold Miners

by Beauty Lupiya and Jens Kristensen

This action formed part of a protest staged by furious Indians demanding that an estimated 7,000 illegal prospectors, who have settled over half their land for more than 20 years and stripped of their once flourishing forests, should leave.

"The situation is very serious. The Indians are threatening to attack the gold prospectors, but the prospectors are armed, and they might not hesitate to shoot," said Roberto Lustosa of FUNAI, the government body in charge of Indian affairs.

According to a FUNAI spokesman working in Para, land is not the only issue. "The Indians also suffer from mercury poisoning, frequent malaria attacks and their rivers are polluted," Pituyaro Metuktera said.

Illegal prospectors in Brazil have used mercury to pan off gold for at least fifteen years. According to surveys by the Environment Ministry, there are around 1,000 mercury-polluted gold mines throughout the country. They are also found in the neighboring countries of Venezuela, Bolivia and French Guyana.

Gold diggers draw off a mixture of mud, water and tiny gold particles from the bottom of man-made lakes and use mercury to separate the gold. Mercury-polluted water from these lakes then overflows into streams and spreads throughout the large networks of tributaries and rivers causing widespread environmental damage and physical ailments.

Indians and prospectors -- both dependent on rivers for fish -- are at risk from mercury poisoning.

Brazilian scientists announced the first cases of mercury poisoning in 1994. Tests revealed that fishermen living on the banks of river Tapajos, a tributary of the Amazon river, had concentrations of mercury in their bodies and hair of as much as 151 particles per million (ppm) -- far above the World Health Organization danger limit of 6 ppm.

Visual impairment, loss of hair, severe headaches, impotence and involuntary movements of arms, legs and muscles are all symptoms of mercury poisoning.

"Mercury poisoning goes on for many years. It's not easy to cure and can even affect unborn babies in pregnant women," said Dr Fernando Branches, one of the Brazilian researchers.

But in many of these gold mining areas and mining towns, poverty is widespread, and prospectors say they have no alternative means of income.

"Gold is our life. What do you want us to do instead, steal?" said Jason da Silva, a 39-year-old prospector from the mining town of Pocone in western Brazil. Jason, married with five children, earns $20 a week from panning for gold 16 hours a day.

On the other hand, the Indians are finding it more and more difficult to survive in a forest which is gradually being destroyed by the prospectors.

And a government ban on mercury, introduced in 1988, has proved difficult to enforce.

"It's not easy to protect the environment against prospectors. Most of them have no permanent address and have never been employed. They are constantly moving to new sites," said Eduardo Martins, director of the Brazilian Institute of Environment, IBAMA.

In Belem, the capital of Para, a spokesman for the government's Institute of Science, Technology and Environment, Luis Otavo Fernandes, said they have been educating people about the environment and dangers of mercury poisoning. The number of mercury-related illnesses has diminished by more than 50 percent in the last ten years, he says.

But Concecao Pinheiro, a researcher at the Federal University of Para, warns that even if most people appear healthy, they will sooner or later fall seriously ill if contaminated with mercury.

"It's not easy to stop the use of mercury completely. There is currently no alternative for prospectors. They cannot afford to buy the expensive mining technology used by mining companies," said Fernandes.

Roberto Kishinami, president of Greenpeace Brazil, disagrees. Some gold prospectors have enough money to afford modern technologies, he says. They are simply too greedy to do so.

Greenpeace has found that half the mercury imported into Brazil goes to illegal prospectors and is calling for the government to introduce strict controls on imports. It is also pressing for licenses to be issued to all mercury users. If mercury users register their names with the government, they say, it will be easier to control the illegal circulation of mercury.

"The only alternative is to boycott gold products," Roberto Kishinami said. "But it is not easy. Users of gold products are not concerned with the origins of their products and they don't know anything about environmental damage," he added.

But the government argues that, with the falling prices of gold both nationally and internationally, the number of prospectors is on the decline. And it is trying to encourage them to return to their previous way of life -- farming.