Indigenous Groups Continue To Raise Concerns Vs. Mining, Pollution In Amazon

Some indigenous groups continue to voice their concerns against mining and deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.

A report on The Guardian said a huge number of Indigenous activists and environmentalists have attended an assembly to raise their continuing concerns about ensuring the future of the world's biggest rainforest.

The groups' assembly came prior to a two-day conference that will be attended by the presidents of the eight Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. The conference will take place in the City of Belem.

Assembly

In the assembly, members of the indigenous groups have discussed various measures on how to protect indigenous territories within the Amazon Rainforest as well as ways on salvaging the popular rainforest against a catastrophic tipping point.

The activists also tackled what action they will take on combatting organized crime groups that have been controlling them in the region.

They expressed deep concern that the Amazon Rainforest, including its rivers and native communities, continue to suffer from effects of agribusiness, mining groups, loggers, and even drug traffickers.

The indigenous communities also voiced their strong opposition against proposals to drill oil near the mouth of the Amazon River as they also urged for a halt on the oil and gas production across South America's largest biome.

"We are crying out for help. Our rivers are being polluted. Miners are coming into our lands. Our territory is unprotected. We are being threatened. Indigenous people are dying all across Brazil," Bushe Matis, president of the Indigenous NGO, said in The Guardian report.

A separate report on Aljazeera also said that more than 800 indigenous families could be forced to evacuate from their residences and relocate because a Canadian mining firm is already on its way to build a massive open-pit gold mine.

The project will cover more than 2,400 hectares or 5,930 acres of one of the most gold-rich areas of the Amazon.

According to Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the conference was organized as part of the measures to reposition the country as a "political and environmental trailblazer" following the years that the Amazon Rainforest was devastated and isolated under Lula's predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula said the world needs to see the conference in Belem, noting that this move is the most important landmark that was taken when it comes to having discussions about climate crisis.

Deforestation

Deforestation is among the many threats against the Amazon Rainforest. To recall, the deforestation rate in the famous rainforest was able to attain a low record for the last six years.

National space agency Inpe in earlier disclosed that 500 square kilometers or 193 square miles of rainforest were cleared in Brazil as of July of this year, a report on Nature World News said.

Lula and Environment Minister Marina Silva earlier promised to achieve zero deforestation in the area as they will continue to push for continued reductions in time for the United Nations Climate Conference or the COP30.

The COP30 is expected to take place in the Amazon city of Belém in 2025.