While the Brazilian government pushes a bill to allow mining on indigenous lands in order to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fertilizers, studies show another path to increase production, since the largest known reserves are in areas way distant from indigenous lands. Less than 2% of requests for exploration of fertilizer mineral deposits today focus on these lands. A survey carried out by the NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) based on requests for mine exploration shows that only 1.6% of the requests for potash are located on indigenous lands. For phosphate exploration, they represent 0.4%. Another ongoing study carried out by researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) shows that only one third of the reserves of fertilizer are in the Legal Amazon territory and only 11% would have some overlap with non-approved indigenous lands. The study indicates that most Brazil’s reserves would be in São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Sergipe, far from indigenous lands or conservation units.
Source: Reuters (*Translated by Ia Niani)