- Prosecutors in Brazil’s Amapá state have warned of an illegal gold mine operating just 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from second-highest known tree in the Brazilian Amazon — an 85-meter (279-foot) red angelim.
- Illegal gold miners have been moving into Amapá in the wake of federal raids on mining hotspots in other parts of the Brazilian Amazon, including the Yanomami and Munduruku Indigenous territories.
- A surge in the gold price has fueled the miners’ destructive potential and their capacity to open new areas in highly isolated places.
Since 2019, researchers have been using lasers and making incursions into the depths of the Brazilian Amazon to identify giant trees that tower far above the rainforest canopy. Besides being a natural and scientific patrimony, these trees have an important role as climate regulators, are home to several other plants and animals, and may reveal secrets about the past of the rainforest.
The tallest known tree in the Amazon to date is an 88.5-meter (290-foot) red angelim (Dinizia excelsa), believed to be between 400 and 600 years old and capable of absorbing as much carbon dioxide as 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of the forest around it, according to scientists. It’s located in Pará state, where the local government has designated a conservation area around it to protect this giant’s sanctuary.
In neighboring Amapá state, however, the species has come under increasing threat. Amapá is home to six giant trees, including the Amazon’s second-tallest, an 85-m (279-ft) red angelim located in the Iratapuru River Sustainable Development Reserve, managed by the state government. The area’s protected status, however, hasn’t prevented illegal gold miners from operating 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away from this Amazonian treasure.
The Amapá state public ministry (MP-AP) announced this discovery in late March. In October 2024, it had already made a public recommendation to the state government, seeking protection for the giant trees and for the creation of permanent preservation areas within a 1-km radius of each specimen.
“The government’s response is still vague,” Marcelo Moreira, the prosecutor who authored the recommendation, told Mongabay. Mongabay reached out to the Amapá Environmental Secretariat for comment, but it didn’t respond to our questions.
Gold mining in Amapá isn’t as intensive as in other Amazon states, such as Pará. In the last few years, however, the arrival of illegal miners, known as garimpeiros in Portuguese, from other parts of Brazil has raised alarms among local authorities. “The expansion of garimpos [gold mines] at this rate is something new,” Moreira said.
According to the Brazilian Federal Police and the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, some of the illegal miners expelled from the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in Roraima state fled to Amapá and started operating there. Raids to clear them out of the Indigenous territory began in 2023, triggered by the humanitarian crisis that their operations and presence had wrought on the resident Yanomami. According to the federal government, more than 20,000 garimpeiros have left the area since then.
“The operations in the Yanomami [territory] had a cockroach-scaring effect,” Luiz Jardim de Moraes Wanderley, a professor of geography at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), told Mongabay. “You don’t kill the cockroach; you scare it away, and it goes somewhere else. The public policy that would work is to create other economies that can compete with mining.”
Amapá is also a destination for miners coming from Pará state, where the federal government has also been carrying out raids in the Tapajós River Basin. That region is home to the municipality of Itaituba, notorious as the Amazon’s illegal gold capital, and the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, where federal forces have been fighting illegal miners since November 2024.
“[Garimpeiros] noticed that in Amapá the inspections weren’t hitting so hard yet and rushed here,” a businessman in the gold trade currently based in Amapá told Mongabay. “One came here and thought it was good. He invited another, who also invited another. And so it goes. Backhoes arrive here every day. It’s a big deal here. It’s going to be the next Tapajós,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash from illegal miners.
The arrival of the newcomers has also changed the mining dynamics in Amapá, an area with a history of artisanal mining. Garimpeiros arriving in the state now have more money and bring heavier machinery, resulting in severe environmental impact. “Each of these machines degrades at least 100 meters [330 ft] a day. They also use a lot more mercury,” said Moreira, the prosecutor.
In February, the dam holding the mining waste at one of these mines collapsed under heavy rain and runoff near the Cupixi and Araguari rivers, the same region where the Amazon’s second-tallest tree is located. The mining waste contaminated the water and affected local communities.
“These are mining sites that have existed for many years but didn’t move the amount of land they do today,” the gold businessman told Mongabay. “So I don’t doubt that it will happen again.”
Gold spike drive miners deeper into the forest
The rising price of gold, fueled by international instability and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, also plays a key role in the advance of mines into new parts of the Amazon. In Amapá, traditional mining areas have suddenly grown. This is the case in the Lourenço region, where some of Brazil’s oldest mines are found.
Mining is allowed in Lourenço, but the activity has expanded illegally over Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, Brazil’s largest fully protected conservation area. According to the Iepé Institute, which advocates for Indigenous rights, deforestation linked to the opening of new mines increased by 304% in the park between 2022 and 2023, amounting to 107 hectares (264 acres).
“There are regions where you’d have to produce 300, 400 grams [9.6-12.9 ounces] of gold in one mining front to be able to work, to pay expenses and have something left over. Now you can do that with 100 grams [3.2 oz],” said the gold businessman. “There’s a huge incentive.”
The gold price hike also allows garimpeiros to take more risks and explore new areas deeper in the forest, where logistics are much pricier. That’s the case of the mine located close to Amapá’s giant angelim, accessible only by helicopter or a three-day boat trip. “Even so, they take a whole structure there,” Moreira said. “It’s incredible: they dismantle the bulldozer, take it across the river, and reassemble it at the mine.”
The advance of illegal gold mining over pristine areas also threatens traditional groups living far away from public authorities. Inhabitants of the Rio Paru D’este Indigenous Territory, in Pará, were surprised last year by the arrival of illegal miners.
According to Aventino Nakai Kaxuyana Tiriyó, president of the territory’s Association of Tiriyó, Kaxuyana, and Txikuyana Indigenous Peoples, the mine is located close to one of their villages. The community often watches planes flying and hears gunshots. “They know that despite being an isolated territory, there is an advance of mining,” he said.
Located in northern Pará, Rio Paru D’este is part of a massive block of protected areas stretching up to Amapá and home to Brazil’s giant trees. Much of this protection is simply the result of there not being any roads in the area. Garimpeiros, however, managed to build an airstrip and then start mining, as shown in satellite images analyzed by Mongabay.
“The high [gold] prices mean that the surplus earned from mining is invested in new areas, machinery, airplanes, and helicopters,” said Wanderley, the geography professor.
According to Aventino, illegal gold mining is also increasing in the neighboring country of Suriname, which borders another Indigenous territory, Parque do Tumucumaque. “Our fear now is that it will get worse and worse and start to contaminate our rivers, start encroaching on our land,” he said.
According to the Indigenous leader, Brazilian authorities have done nothing despite been alerted about the illegal mine. In an email to Mongabay, the federal agency for Indigenous affairs, Funai, said the Federal Police and IBAMA have been called in to support territorial protection actions in the Paru D’este Indigenous land. The Federal Police confirmed there’s an investigation under way, but said details were confidential. IBAMA didn’t respond to Mongabay’s emails.
Banner image: Amapá state is home to six of the Amazon’s tallest known trees, including an 85-meter (279-foot) red angelim threatened by illegal gold mining. Image courtesy of Havita Rigamonti/Imazon/Ideflor-Bi.
Brazil upgrades park to protect Amazon’s tallest tree, allows tourism
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