Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Calls for More Mining on Indigenous Lands as Bill Suffers Setbacks

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been pushing for a law that would allow mining on indigenous lands as the bill suffered setbacks on Wednesday.

Bolsonaro argued that it was necessary as Brazil needed fertilizer supplies, according to a Reuters report.

Congress did not agree to rush to a vote due to concerns that voters might be angered in an election year.

Speaker Arthur Lira noted that a working group would be set up to study the bill and report back in 30 days.

Bolsonaro has a history of cutting back environmental enforcement in the Amazon while also defunding indigenous protection agency Funai.

The right-wing Brazilian president has also long called for more mining and commercial farming in the Amazon to create jobs and decrease poverty.

Lawmakers were reluctant to vote on the indigenous mining bill, with several thousand Brazilians outside Congress protesting against legislative proposals.

Brazil is considered as one of the world's top food producers and the largest importer of potash, which is a powder that is obtained from ashes of burned wood sometimes used as fertilizer.

Jair Bolsonaro Pushes More Mining

In 2018, Bolsonaro touted mining the Amazon, promising to dig the rainforest's vast mineral wealth, according to an Aljazeera news report. He has earned the support of prospectors and is widely expected to run for re-election in October.

Bolsonaro issued two decrees last month to drive gold prospecting, focusing on the Amazon rainforest area.

Environmental and rights groups claimed that Bolsonaro is pushing for the mining legislative using the pretext of the Ukraine crisis.

Suzi Huff Theodoro, a University of Brasilia geologist and professor, noted that certain activities are not allowed today on Indigenous lands.

The public prosecutor's office handling Indigenous cases noted that the bill was "unconstitutional," adding that it could trigger the disappearance of some Indigenous tribes in the Amazon.

The University of Minas Gerais has found that only one-third of these potash reserves are in the Amazon, with just 11 percent are under lands claimed by Indigenous communities.

Mining in Amazon Rainforest

Illicit mining operations on Indigenous lands and in other areas formally protected by law have hit a record-high in the past years during Bolsonaro's administration, according to Nature report.

Anthropologist Glenn Shepard from the Emílio Goeldi Museum in Belém, noted that it was definitely the worst it has been for Indigenous people since the constitution was signed in 1988.

Illegal mining operations, particularly small-scale gold extraction operations, have increased fivefold on Indigenous lands and threefold in other protected areas of Brazil, such as parks.

Indigenous territories play a part in protecting the Amazon's biodiversity and an enormous amount of carbon that is locked away in its trees and soils, apart from the area being their homes.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature challenged the governments to protect 80 percent of the Amazon basin by 2025.

Meanwhile, Indigenous representatives noted that they plan to fight for implementation across the Amazon.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by Mary Webber

WATCH: Scars of illegal mining blight Brazil's Amazon - from Reuters