‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining
Photograph: João Laet/The GuardianThe encircling encampment also teemed with intruders as hordes of miners used pickaxes and explosives to burrow deep into the hillsides and savanna in search of treasure.“They wiped out everything. Photograph: João Laet/The GuardianOther much larger protected territories have suffered damage on a greater physical scale but nowhere was the vandalism as intense as in Sararé, a Singapore-sized chunk of savanna and woodland near the border with Bolivia that lost 4% of its forests between January 2024 and August 2025. “The price of gold, this crazy global context, Trump, these things … [have a direct impact] all across the Amazon,” said Tubino, who saw a clear link between global turmoil and the annihilation of the forests around him, as investors sought a safe haven for their money.double quotation markIt’s a complete desert.
- ▪Photograph: João Laet/The GuardianThe encircling encampment also teemed with intruders as hordes of miners used pickaxes and explosives to burrow deep into the hillsides and savanna in search of treasure.“They wiped out everything.
- ▪Photograph: João Laet/The GuardianOther much larger protected territories have suffered damage on a greater physical scale but nowhere was the vandalism as intense as in Sararé, a Singapore-sized chunk of savanna and woodland near the borde
- ▪“The price of gold, this crazy global context, Trump, these things … [have a direct impact] all across the Amazon,” said Tubino, who saw a clear link between global turmoil and the annihilation of the forests around him, as investors sought
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Illegal mining operations carved out of the AmazonBrazil‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold miningThe Guardian goes on the ground with Brazilian forces fighting to eradicate mining that has destroyed protected areas of Indigenous landTom Phillips in the Sararé Indigenous territoryMon 20 Jul 2026 01.00 EDTLast modified on Mon 20 Jul 2026 01.12 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleThe jerry-built bordello at the foot of Vila Cururu, an illegal gold-mining settlement at the heart of Brazil’s most desecrated Indigenous territory, was a hive of depravity until just a few weeks ago.Inebriated prospectors huddled around wooden tables, swigging beer and Scotch whisky, and ogling pole-dancing sex workers before going with them to shacks behind the brothel.View…
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