WUNRN
IT IS NOT EASY TO CONFRONT LARGE
CORPORATIONS TO DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS, LAND, ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNITIES, JUSTICE.
BUT, BRAZIL AMAZON WOMEN AS PART OF CAMPAIGN, HAVE ACHIEVED DELAY ON BELO SUN
MINING. WHEN WE CONSIDER THE STRUGGLES, THIS CASE IS A MODEL OF CITIZEN
ACTIVISM.
AMAZON WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINES OFDEFENSE
OF LAND, COMMUNITIES, CLIMATE CHANGE,RIGHTS
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Website Link Includes Video. The 2
articles below follow the activism and current outcome, over months.
BRAZIL - BELO SUN MINING: NO!
INDIGENOUS WOMEN JOIN COLLECTIVE ACTION TO STOP MINING COMPANY THREAT TO AMAZON
COMMUNITIES
October
10, 2013 - Christian Poirier
This week Amazon Watch joined a global coalition of organizations to launch a campaign in defense of indigenous and traditional communities threatened by the Canadian mining company Belo Sun. The Toronto-based company plans to build Brazil's largest gold mine on the banks of the Amazon's Xingu River in the very area that is most impacted by the disastrous Belo Monte dam. Together with our partners in Brazil, Canada, the United States, and Europe, we are standing against Belo Sun's outrageous scheme to reap massive profits from the social and environmental havoc being caused by Belo Monte.
Aiming to extract tons of gold from the Xingu's "Big Bend" region, Belo Sun is swooping in like a scavenger, promising to heap further tragedy on local communities and a declining ecosystem. You can read more about Belo Sun's looming criminal intentions here.
We cannot allow this reckless corporate malfeasance to take place on our watch! Forty-four organizations worldwide have signed on to a letter detailing the threat posed by Belo Sun and demanding the mega-mine's environmental licensing process be immediately suspended and placed under rigorous review. Together we can halt further disaster from befalling the peoples and environment of the mighty Xingu River.
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BRAZILIAN COURT SUSPENDS LICENSE FOR BELO SUN MINE, REQUIRING DETAILED ANALYSIS ON IMPACT ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN REGION
Toronto-based Belo Sun Mining Corp. plans to build Brazil's largest gold mine, the Volta Grande open-pit gold project.
But the Globe and Mail reports, "A Brazilian court has suspended the environmental and provisional licences of Toronto-based gold miner Belo Sun Mining Corp., putting a significant new obstacle in the way of the company’s plans to develop Brazil’s largest gold mine on a tributary of the Amazon river. Last November a federal court suspended the company’s environmental permit, saying Belo Sun had not taken necessary steps to analyze the mine’s potential impact on indigenous peoples who live within a few kilometers of the mine site."
Forty-five organizations - including the Blue Planet Project and the Council of Canadians - are part of a campaign called Belo Sun No! that has been demanding the environmental licensing process for the mine be immediately suspended and that the mine be placed under rigorous review.
The Globe and Mail article notes, "The judge said that the mine stood to cause 'negative and irreversible damage to the quality of life and cultural heritage' of the Juruna and Arara peoples and that Belo Sun must complete a study of this issue before it can proceed."
"Mark Eaton, Belo Sun’s CEO, said the indigenous impact study is already under way..., said the company needs another five months to finish the study, and will 'probably appeal' the federal court suspension."
But, "Leonardo Amorim, the lawyer for an environmental organization called the Social Environmental Institute which has been trying to block the mine, said that timeline would be astonishingly fast for such an impact study, which must be coordinated with Brazil’s indigenous people’s agency, FUNAI. ...[And] Christian Poirier, an activist with the organization Amazon Watch [said] 'Belo Sun has already shown they want to do the absolute minimum to receive their license to drill and it’s encouraging that the federal courts have shown they are not going to let this slide. Clarifying that you’re going to use this much arsenic or dump that much slag by the Xingu River is not enough.'"
The article notes, "In response to the news, some analysts revised the timeline for gold production from Belo Sun from 2016 back as far as 2020."
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