Eighty-six Percent of Brazilians Are Against Mining in Indigenous Lands

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Eighty-six percent of Brazilians are opposed to the influx of mining companies to explore indigenous lands, according to a Datafolha survey published this Friday, August 2nd.

Should the government allow the entry of mining companies to exploit indigenous lands?

• 86 percent disagree
• Seven percent partly agree
• Seven percent totally agree

The 2,088 interviews were conducted by Datafolha between June 4th and 6th this year, in 168 municipalities across the country. The margin of error is two percentage points, up or down, with a confidence level of 95 percent.

On Monday, July 29th, president Jair Bolsonaro said that he intends to regulate mining in the country, a plan that includes the liberalization of mining activities on indigenous lands.

According to Bolsonaro, NGOs and other countries (he did not offer any examples) are opposed, because they wish to see the indigenous people imprisoned in a “zoo” — as if they were a “prehistoric animal.”

This Datafolha research was commissioned by the non-governmental ISA, which protects the rights of traditional populations in Brazil. In an interview with the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo”, Márcio Santilli, one of its founders and former president of indigenous agency FUNAI, said that the outcome shows that “even those who support the president disagree with his intention to promote mining and the entry of foreign mining companies.”