This is part two of a series on the operation to evict illegal gold miners from the Munduruku Indigenous Territory. Read part one here. Part three, four and five are coming soon. Residents and officials worry illegal miners in the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Brazil’s Amazon will simply return or migrate to other conservation units once the government’s operation to evict the miners ends. Currently, some plans and many suggestions are in place to prevent this from happening, sources told Mongabay, as the first stage of the eviction operation so far sees a reduction in mining activities. After eviction operations and security forces withdraw, it is common to see illegal miners come back to the same area or nearby. In this region of Pará state, this includes the Amanã National Forest and the Tapajós Environmental Protection Area, the former already hit by a wave of illegal mining and deforestation. The national forest is a new favorite destination for miners, conservationists said, and they have destroyed 1,036 hectares (2,560 acres) of forest within two months. According to conservation officials, this return or migration is due to a combination of factors, such as high profits, limited access to alternative livelihoods, weak law enforcement presence in remote areas and corruption. Also, they say, miners understand that eviction efforts are temporary, which means they can resume once the pressure subsides. An illegal mining camp on the Kabitutu River, a branch of the Tapajós River, where the village of Katö, inhabited by the Munduruku people,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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