JACAREACANGA, Brazil (Reuters) – The involvement of Indigenous people in illegal gold hunting, lured by the prospect of easy money due to record prices, has made Brazil’s task of cracking down on wildcat mining in the Amazon far harder, environmental agents and police say.
The Munduruku territory, a reservation the size of Switzerland on the Tapajos river, a major Amazon tributary, has become a hot spot for illegal mining, which Brazilian law bans on Indigenous land. But increasingly, Munduruku tribe members are entering the illegal trade that is backed by organized crime.
On a recent enforcement operation by Brazil’s environmental protection agency IBAMA, agents swooped down in helicopters on muddy tailing ponds to find a camp in a clearing, but the miners had fled, alerted by the noise of the approaching choppers. A pressure cooker on a gas stove was still hot, and dogs barked.
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