THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS CAUSED BY MINING ON INDIGENOUS LANDS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

In Brazil, mining on indigenous lands has increased greatly in recent years, but the extraction of minerals from the subsoil causes numerous socio-environmental impacts, such as the contamination of rivers, especially by mercury, which is toxic if ingested, which generates several diseases in the population that uses the rivers to bathe, wash clothes, get their food through fishing,  among others. The objective of this article is to investigate the socio-environmental impacts caused by mining on indigenous lands in Brazil, as well as to analyze what Brazilian legislation provides for the forms of protection of these areas.  The relevance of this topic intensifies because recently in 2023 hundreds of children from Yanomami indigenous tribes died through diseases that could be prevented, such as malnutrition. It turns out that these areas of Yanomami lands are being invaded by miners to carry out illegal mining, which has been causing serious damage to the indigenous populations that live there.