Name: Brazils environmental agency tackles illegal mining
Uploaded: 2025-11-02T16:47:53.474Z
Duration: 2 min 46 s
Description: Deep in the Amazon, Brazil’s environmental agents risk their lives to protect the rainforest from illegal gold mining and armed intruders.

Deep in the Amazon, Brazil’s environmental agents risk their lives to protect the rainforest from illegal gold mining and armed intruders.

State of Pará

Brazil's environmental agency, ICMBU, has launched a mission to track and destroy illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon rainforest, specifically in the state of Pará. The team faces significant logistical challenges, including long travel times and the need for helicopters to reach remote mining sites, where miners have managed to smuggle heavy equipment over several weeks.

During the operation, agents discovered well-equipped camps and apprehended a miner operating a dredge that was polluting the river. Despite their efforts, officials acknowledge the difficulty of patrolling such a vast and remote area, with miners often returning to continue illegal activities.

Brazil's environmental agency tackles illegal mining

When world leaders and scientists talk about protecting the Amazon, it often sounds like a straightforward task, something that can be done with the push of a button or the stroke of a pen. But on the ground, reality is very different. I'm Monica Iannacchiev in Pará, a state the size of Spain and France combined, and home to one quarter of Brazil's rainforest. We're following a team from Brazil's environmental agency, ICMBU, on a mission to track down and destroy illegal gold mines deep in the Amazon. The operation kicks off in Santarém, where the Tapajós and Amazon rivers meet. From here, we take the Trans-Amazonian Highway to the city of Novo Progresso. The driver says it'll take 11 hours if we're lucky, potholes, trucks, ferries. It's a grueling, slow journey. At the ICMBU base in Novo Progresso, satellite images reveal how illegal mining has spread. But how did the miners get such heavy equipment this far into the jungle? They take 30 to 40 days to smuggle in the equipment, piece by piece. Ronilson's small team patrols a region the size of Greece, relying on helicopters to reach remote areas. We just arrived here, and it rained a lot yesterday, but people here are telling us that it's OK. We will board the helicopter now. Forty minutes later, we're on the ground, ready for a 10-kilometer hike. Are you feeling hot, Kenji, with all the equipment? No, today is not hot, today is good weather. After an hour hiking, we reach a mining camp, 200 kilometers from the nearest city, yet with surprising comforts. They're very well equipped here, as you can see. This is a washing machine. We even find a motorcycle the miners left behind. The agents use it to move back and forth, saving time on foot. Now we're heading to another camp, this one by the river. The agents catch the miner who was operating the dredge, polluting the waters. I know it's wrong and risky working here, but I have no choice. His dreams of finding gold go up in flames. We return to the helicopter to rebase, leaving the miner behind. He says he'll return, like thousands of others, to another illegal mine in the Amazon, a remote region he knows is very hard to patrol. Monica Yanakev, Aljazeera, the Amazon jungle in Pará, Brazil.

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