Mauricio Ye’kuana is a Brazilian Indigenous leader and Treasurer of the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY), working to protect Yanomami and Ye’kuana communities in the Brazilian Amazon. Yanomami Indigenous Territory covers an area of 9.6 million hectares (slightly larger than Portugal) in Roraima state, northern Brazil. Illegal gold mining has been on the rise since the 1980s, with a rapid increase since 2000. There has been a further explosion of activity under the cover of the global Covid-19 pandemic, especially ‘wildcat miners’: small-scale mining camps that are sometimes independent but increasingly are being funded and supported by wealthy business people and politicians. As of 2021, the total cumulative forest area destroyed by illegal gold mining in Yanomami land exceeded 3,000 hectares.
What level of destruction is illegal gold mining causing on Yanomami land?
