julho, 02 2013

by Aldem Bourscheit


Brasilia (DF) – The lack of alignment and understanding between the Brazilian and French is boosting socio-environmental impacts on the frontier between the two countries. A year ago French police officers were shot dead by a gang involved in illegal gold mining. The denunciation appeared in an open letter signed by European parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations published in the French daily Le Monde and by several French news agencies. See the full letter (in French) by following the shortcut at the side of this page.

The policemen dead on June 26, 2012 were a 32 year-old corporal and an assistant taking part in Operation Harpia (Harpy Eagle) designed to control illegal mining in the region. Two other French policemen were injured in the foray.

In April of the same year, around 100 Brazilian artisanal gold miners were imprisoned in French Guiana. Prior to that in 2010, over 1,500 foreigners in irregular situations were arrested. The gold rush now in course has been boosted by the steep price increase in the international gold markets following the economic crisis of 2008 and the increased demand for gold jewellery from emergent countries, like India.

On last June 24, a Brazilian boatman was killed by French policemen on French territory. It was alleged that he was transporting clandestine products to one of the illegal gold mining areas.

Apart from the question of the lethal violence, a lot of mercury is spilling over from illegal gold mining. The substance, used to separate the gold from other materials, is highly toxic and dangerous to human health, but it is currently being widely diffused into the environment, where it finds its way into the flesh of animals and fish and into other important food chain pathways.

It is estimated that illegal miners use as much as one kilo of mercury to extract one kilo of gold. WWF Network has estimated that 30 tons of mercury a year are being discharged into the environment in the three Guianas and much of that is taking place in protected areas and indigenous reserves.

In the region of the upper Maroni River, a third of the members of local communities are suffering from mercury contamination with contamination levels far above the limits stipulated by the World Health Organisation. As many as 15 million people in South America, Africa and Asia are believed to be contaminated by the metal.

Omission – A specific bilateral agreement between France and Brazil designed to boost joint efforts to curb illegal gold mining was signed in 2008 by the then presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Nicolas Sarkozy, during the inauguration of the works to build a bridge over the Oiapoque River that divides the two countries, but to this day it has still not been ratified by the Brazilian Congress.

“One year after the supposed declaration of ‘the gold war’, we, the signatories to this open letter deeply regret the total lack of progress towards any solution for this problem in spite of its being so very well known. In view of the socio-environmental scandal, the upcoming inauguration of the bridge over the Oiapoque river, which ought to mark the fraternal relations between those living on its French and Brazilian banks, may actually serve to escalate tensions that are already running very high. With just one year to go before the Football World Cup in Brazil, that country’s image is becoming increasingly degraded”, warns the letter.

Opportunities – Instead of aggravating conflicts, the bridge over the Oiapoque could, instead, be the catalyst of trading and tourism opportunities for Brazil and France. After all, the two countries are home to the biggest block of well preserved tropical forest on Earth, the Tumucumaque Mountains National park in Brazil and the Amazonian National Park in French Guiana, while the inauguration of the new bridge over the Oiapoque could invigorate local trade and the transit of tourists between the two countries, in a similar way to what takes place in the region of the National Parks of Iguaçu Falls (Brazil) and Iguazú (Argentina).

The Minamata Convention, signed by Brazil and another 140 countries in February is also pending ratification by the Brazilian Congress together with a plan to banish mercury from industrial processes and its use in the manufacture of a series of products by the year 2020. Technical solutions for the problems already exist and that includes the problem of protecting populations directly exposed to mercury, like the gold miners.

“There can be no doubt of the urgent need to combat illegal gold mining, especially when it is taking place in protected areas and indigenous lands. After all, it is really not much use curbing deforestation if the soil, the waters and the local people are all being poisoned.  WWF Brazil supports peaceful, serious, joint solutions to address these trans-frontier conflicts, always keeping in  mind the sustainable development of a region so extremely important in the sphere of global efforts for biodiversity and ecological service conservation ”, declared WWF-Brazil’s director for Public Policies, Jean Timmers.

“In that respect, we cannot accept orchestrated attacks on Protected Areas like the Tumucumaque Mountains National Park and the Amapa State Forest. Lowering the level of protection or simply de-constituting protected areas would mean eliminating huge sustainable development potential for the region, degrading the country’s image in the eyes of the world and, as such, constituting a huge political blunder, totally out of keeping with the bi-national efforts being made to preserve the Amazon”, he added.