UN calls for integrated efforts to protect Yanomami children
The invasion of miners into Yanomami land has deepened the challenges faced by the children and adolescents of this indigenous territory, as per a report released this week by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with support from the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY). From 2019 to 2022 alone, when illegal activity in the area peaked, at least 570 child deaths from preventable and treatable diseases – such as malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and parasitic infections – were recorded.
Illegal activity also caused a number of socio-environmental problems, mainly due to the contamination of rivers with mercury and the occupation of territories – impacting hunting, gathering, and farming. This occurred in parallel with the breakdown of the health care system in the region, leaving the population unassisted.
The Yanomami people comprise approximately 31 thousand individuals occupying Brazil’s largest indigenous territory. A total of 390 communities are spread across 9.6 million hectares in the northern states of Roraima and Amazonas.
Their plight became so dire that the Brazilian government in 2023 declared a public health emergency of national importance in the territory. Since then, over 7,400 integrated efforts to combat illegal mining have been carried out. In health care, the number of professionals working in the region has tripled, with several care centers reopening or opening for the first time.
However, “even though there are major efforts to reverse the situation, challenges remain,” says the report, released on the eve of COP30, to be held in the Amazon city of Belém, Pará state, in November.
Health care
“It is a chronic and systemic cycle of illness closely connected to the invasion of gold miners. First, as a Yanomami friend says, where there is gold mining, there is malaria – and this makes it more difficult for families to cultivate their fields. Sick people can’t do it and can’t go hunting either. This also leads to hunger and malnutrition, which is made all the worse by the increased destruction of the forest, as the noise of the machinery scares away the game,” said anthropologist Ana Maria Machado, one of the authors of the report.
Data from 2022 show that, among the 4,245 Yanomami children monitored by the Food and Nutrition Surveillance service, more than half (2,402) were underweight from malnutrition. Cases of malaria exceeded 21 thousand from 2019 to 2022 among children up to five years of age, a figure close to the total recorded over the previous ten years. In four years, 47 Yanomami children died from the disease – almost seven times more than in the previous four years.
Respiratory diseases are another major cause of mortality, with 187 child deaths recorded from 2018 to 2022. The most common occurrence is the development of simple flu-like syndromes, which affect the Yanomami more severely because of their low immunity amid increased contact with miners and other outsiders, and greater circulation in cities. Many of these diseases are preventable with vaccination, but with the dismantling of health care services, vaccination coverage among the Yanomami sank from 82 percent in 2018 to 53 percent in 2022.
Gold mining is also responsible for the contamination of waterways with mercury, which continues to be used to extract gold, despite being banned in Brazil. A Federal Police report drawn up in 2022 points out that water samples from the Uraricoera, Parima, Catrimani, and Mucajaí rivers have mercury levels on average 8,600 percent above the average considered acceptable for human consumption.
Even though the removal of miners has already led to visible improvements in the rivers, “the colorless presence of mercury in the environment, rivers, and fish will continue to be a source of contamination for several years,” the document notes. Mercury causes serious health damage, especially to the central nervous system. It can seriously impair development in children, not to mention fetal malformation as well as motor and neurological issues in babies.
Groups conducting illegal activities have also taken advantage of the growing vulnerability of the Yanomami and used money, weapons, alcohol, and drugs to co-opt young Yanomami men to work in the mines and to sexually exploit girls.
“There are numerous reports of cases of girls being abused in exchange for payment for themselves or their families. Girls and women have also been reported to visit the mines to engage in prostitution in exchange for food, in blatant exploitation,” the document points out.
Way of life
The study Infância e Juventude Yanomami: O que significa ser criança e os desafios urgentes na Terra Indígena Yanomami (“Yanomami Childhood and Youth: What it means to be a child and the urgent challenges in the Yanomami indigenous territory”) shows that people under 30 make up about 75 percent of the indigenous territory’s population – a proportion well above the Brazilian average of 42 percent. This means that three out of every four Yanomami are children, adolescents, or young adults. In the opinion of the researchers, this demonstrates the importance of taking into account this segment of the population, which is also diverse within itself – with six different languages, for instance.
Despite the worrying data, the report says that this period “is not simply one of deprivation and challenges,” but is also marked by “freedom, autonomy, and community participation.” “In the forest, children grow up with their families – playing, accompanying their fathers on hunting expeditions and their mothers on food-gathering trips, and observing community meetings. Listening to the Yanomami and understanding their knowledge brings us closer to finding the answers with them,” the document argues.
Goals
“The two fundamental goals of the report are – first, it should become a timeless reference work and source of information for those who work with the Yanomami; and second, it should help organizations, managers, and professionals across all fields to better understand the special circumstances involved in working with and for these populations,” Gregory Bulit, UNICEF’s emergency chief in Brazil, concludes saying.
