Garimpo Legal do Ouro na Amazônia: Recomendações para um Adequado Controle dos Impactos Socioambientais

This report by Climate Policy Initiative and Amazônia 2030 analyzes the regulatory framework for legal gold mining (garimpo) in the Brazilian Amazon. It argues that current laws are anachronistic, treating industrial-scale operations as artisanal, which allows them to bypass critical environmental safeguards such as prior mineral research and rigorous environmental licensing. The authors recommend federal regulatory updates to mandate prior research for cooperatives and a reversal of simplified, municipalized licensing processes in the state of Pará to better mitigate socio-environmental damages.

• Legal gold mining areas in the Legal Amazon have grown since 2016, accounting for approximately 82% of all gold mining authorizations in Brazil between 2016 and 2023. Of the 770,464 hectares approved nationwide, 630,020 hectares are located in the Legal Amazon, with Mato Grosso and Pará concentrating 64% and 35% of this regional total, respectively.
• Mining cooperatives have become the dominant actors in legal gold mining in the Amazon, operating at an industrial scale. Between 2016 and 2023, cooperatives held areas averaging 178% of the combined areas of individuals and individual firms. In Pará, a high concentration exists where 8% of permissions (27 cooperatives) account for approximately 80% of the legal gold mining areas.
• The current legal framework allows gold mining (garimpo) to bypass the 'prior mineral research' required for industrial mining. This is based on an outdated concept of mining as a rudimentary, artisanal activity. The lack of this research hinders the ability to identify the exact area of exploration and the volume of minerals produced, which complicates the monitoring of socio-environmental damage and the fight against gold laundering.
• Recent federal legislative trends are viewed as regressive, seeking to further simplify mining permissions without updating the definition of the activity or increasing responsibilities. Specifically, PL 2973/2023 proposes allowing gold mining in areas already under industrial research, and PL 957/2024 seeks to define mining as independent of technique or production scale while maintaining existing legal benefits.
• In the state of Pará, environmental licensing for gold mining is improperly simplified and municipalized, despite the state classifying the activity as having a high potential for pollution. While federal standards suggest a three-phase licensing process with an Environmental Impact Study (EIA/Rima), Pará often uses a single-phase process and simplified reports (RCA) typically reserved for low-impact activities. Furthermore, licensing for areas up to 50 hectares has been delegated to municipalities, which may lack the technical capacity for complex analysis.
• There is a significant lack of transparency regarding the implementation of socio-environmental safeguards. In Pará, information is fragmented due to municipalization. At the federal level, the National Mining Agency (ANM) frequently denies access to licensing information via the Access to Information Law (LAI), citing confidentiality requests from the holders of the mining permissions (PLGs).

APA

Cozendey, G., & Chiavari, J. (2025). Garimpo Legal do Ouro na Amazônia: Recomendações para um Adequado Controle dos Impactos Socioambientais. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Garimpo-Legal-do-Ouro-PT-2407.pdf

Chicago

Cozendey, Gabriel, and Joana Chiavari. Garimpo Legal do Ouro na Amazônia: Recomendações para um Adequado Controle dos Impactos Socioambientais. Climate Policy Initiative, 2025. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Garimpo-Legal-do-Ouro-PT-2407.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cozendey |first1=Gabriel |last2=Chiavari |first2=Joana |title=Garimpo Legal do Ouro na Amazônia: Recomendações para um Adequado Controle dos Impactos Socioambientais |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=2025 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Garimpo-Legal-do-Ouro-PT-2407.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cozendey2025garimpo, author = {Cozendey, Gabriel and Chiavari, Joana}, title = {{Garimpo Legal do Ouro na Amazônia: Recomendações para um Adequado Controle dos Impactos Socioambientais}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Garimpo-Legal-do-Ouro-PT-2407.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }