How artisanal, small-scale gold mines are threatening the livelihood of the Amazon’s Yanomami population
Within the Amazon rainforest, the indigenous Yanomami tribe is composed of approximately 30,000 people who have endured violence, disease, and encroachment by unauthorized gold prospectors and miners since the 1980s, (King, 2014). Due to antiquated regulations and deteriorating environmental supervision, the activity of this mining has been mostly free to advance, much to the detriment of the surrounding Yanomami villages (Betim, 2022). The purpose of this research is to examine various ways these threats may affect the livelihood of the Yanomami and their associated traditional ecological knowledge.
Background
Occupying much of Brazil and Peru, and also parts of Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela, the Amazon Basin supports the world’s largest rainforest, which accounts for more than half the total volume of rainforests in the world, (Nunez, 2019). Tropical rainforests are centers of biodiversity, holding an estimated half of the world’s plants and animals, many of which have yet to be cataloged. Rainforests produce, store, and filter water, protecting against soil erosion, floods, and drought. Plants within the rainforest have been utilized to develop medications such as anti-cancer drugs and blood-pressure regulating drugs. The Amazon rainforest is also home to endangered keystone species such as jaguars and orangutans, (Nunez, 2019). As the effects of climate change continue to affect the environment, rainforest trees continue to act as a carbon sink – absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide.
The relationship between the Amazon and the Yanomami may be described as mutualistic; The survival of their people, culture, and well-being is inextricably linked to the Amazon, and the well-being of the Amazon is linked to their survival and culture.
The Yanomami have immense botanical knowledge and use about 500 plants for food, medicine, house building, and other artifacts, (Plummer, 2015). They provide for themselves partly by hunting, gathering, and fishing, and crops are grown in extensive gardens cleared from the forest, which are then continuously maintained through controlled burns. As Amazonian soil is not very fertile, a new garden is cleared every two or three years. The Yanomami are semi-nomadic and rely on soil regeneration and biodiversity, (Plummer, 2015).
Yet, despite long-standing, sustainable lifestyles and ecological methods, the Yanomami are increasingly losing access to their land, resources, and ultimately, their overall culture. Increases in mining within the Amazon can lead to the destabilization, and sometimes destruction, of indigenous lands and cultures.
Within the Brazilian Amazon, mercury exposure due to gold mining has been reported since the early 1980s (Basta, Hacon, Oliveira, et. al, 2018).
Yanomami’s chronic exposure to mercury is mainly due to the high intake of contaminated fish. Traditional Amazon populations rely on fish as their main source of protein (Augusto-Oliveira, Crespo-Lopez, Lopes-Araujo, et. al, 2023). The fish of these mercury-contaminated waters often exceed the levels allowed for human consumption.
Mercury possesses cellular, cardiovascular, hematological, pulmonary, renal, immunological, neurological, endocrine, reproductive, and embryonic toxicological effects, (Blough, Gillette, Rice, et. al, 2014).
The lack of law enforcement by local and federal governments ensuring there is no ASGM invasion in protected indigenous land, compromises both the way of life and the sustainable development of these populations. This is further compounded by limited access to basic health services, and permanent exposure to infectious diseases.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The traditional ecological management strategies include controlled burns, resource rotation, landscape management, and other methods of responding to ecological fluctuations.
Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices include several adaptations; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for social regulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the development of appropriate world views and cultural values.
Some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feedback from the environment to guide the direction of resource management, and TEK has become based on collective experiences throughout generations.
As the Yanomami continue to face destabilization within their communities, of mining practices in areas nearest to them.
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