30 April, 2025
- Indigenous Peoples’
leaders from Brazil and Sweden share powerful first-hand
accounts of deforestation, land grabs and other rights
abuses linked to mining on their
territories. - Experts highlight the rising
threat to Indigenous Peoples from demand for minerals to
serve weapons systems and the energy
transition. - Preview of findings to be
presented at OECD forum to limit deforestation, investment
risk in electric vehicle supply
chains.* - Strong calls for policies that
reduce overall mineral demand and protect Indigenous
Peoples’ rights globally.
A boom in mining
for nickel, lithium, cobalt, copper and other so-called
“critical minerals” is driving deforestation and
threatening the rights of the world’s Indigenous Peoples,
experts and Indigenous Peoples’ leaders said at an
embargoed press briefing* on April 30, ahead of the OECD
Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains.
The
rising demand for critical minerals — projected
to be 3 billion tons by 2050 — is often attributed to the
transition to a low-carbon economy, but weapons
manufacturing is an increasingly important driver — with
serious
impacts for the world’s Indigenous
Peoples.
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Leaders and experts called for urgent,
systemic changes: robust protections for Indigenous
Peoples’ rights, smarter environmental regulations, and
policy innovation to curb overall mineral consumption. They
stressed Indigenous Peoples’ role as essential stewards of
nature, and described why recognizing Indigenous Peoples’
land rights is a powerful, untapped
solution for protecting forests and nature — for the
benefit of all humanity.
“The global economy’s
insatiable appetite for minerals is devastating Indigenous
Peoples, destroying ecosystems, and perpetuating the
injustices of extractive colonialism,” said Galina
Angarova, Executive Director of the SIRGE,
a coalition of Indigenous leaders, Indigenous-led and allied
organizations. “Indigenous Peoples will never stop
defending their territories. Companies that violate our
rights can face millions in unexpected costs and months or
years of delays in projects. Mining companies must respect
the rights of Indigenous Peoples. They literally can’t
afford to ignore us.”
The briefing –
which was co-hosted by SIRGE and Fern, a European
environmental nonprofit – featured testimony from
Indigenous Peoples’ leaders from Brazil and Sweden, who
offered first-hand perspectives of the devastating
on-the-ground impacts of mining in Indigenous Peoples’
territories.
Experts on the briefing also
previewed key findings under embargo from a groundbreaking
new study — the first to model the link between
deforestation and future European demand for electric
vehicles. Commissioned by Fern, the study by French and
Austrian researchers will be released on May 7, during the
OECD
Forum in Paris.*
Mining as witnessed by guardians
of biodiverse ecosystems
Edson Krenak – an
Indigenous activist from Brazil, a PhD student at Vienna
University, and the Brazil lead at Cultural
Survival – described the impacts of a lithium mine in
his home community in the State of Minas Gerais, and how
Indigenous Peoples are fighting back.
“There is a
financial and economic risk for these companies for
undermining Indigenous Peoples,” Krenak said. “Last
month, the Brazilian justice department, finally, after
months of insistence from Quilombola and Indigenous
communities, accepted a complaint against the Canadian
company IONIC, a lithium company. This is the fourth week
that their operations have been stopped. They are losing
five million dollars after four weeks.”
“Science
has proven that Indigenous Peoples are essential stewards of
our planet’s health,” Krenak added. “Our way of life
protects
ecosystems that represent at least 30 percent of the
carbon capture needed to reach the Paris climate goals –
humanity’s best hope for a livable future. When businesses
fail Indigenous Peoples, they’re failing the entire human
race. Without the leadership of Indigenous Peoples, the
Paris climate goals and SDGs will fail.”
On May 5,
Krenak will
join Galina Angarova and other leaders of the SIRGE
Coalition in speaking for the first time at a plenary during
the OECD Forum in Paris, where they will directly address
members of governments, investors and mining
companies.
Mining is often presented as an opportunity
to address the poverty of Indigenous Peoples and local
communities in resource-rich regions, according to Djalma
Ramalho Goncalves, a writer and member of the Arana
Caboclo Indigenous community in the Jequitinhonha Valley in
Minas Gerais, Brazil. But when miners invaded Brazil’s “lithium
valley,” no one spoke of the riches that would be
lost, he said.
“Brazil has a good legal framework
for Indigenous lands, but that is not seen in practice. Our
territory is invaded – and rights systematically violated
– in the name of progress,” said Ramalho Goncalves,
who traveled to Paris to speak at the OECD Forum. “We have
environmental impacts that are catastrophic: destruction of
springs, water, soil, subsoil, species extinction,
degradation of rivers and lands. The situation undermines
food security, physical, mental and spiritual
health.
“Paris has the largest fleet of EVs in
Europe,” Ramalho Goncalves added. “All of them rely on
lithium batteries, and a large part of this lithium is
extracted from Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, and more countries
with violations of human rights and destruction of
ecosystems. Lithium mining in my home region has been turned
into a sacrifice zone for Europe’s EV transition. Every EV
car is powered by Indigenous blood. We are not opposed to
technology or development – we are opposed to a predatory
model that violates rights and destroys the
land.”
Jenny Wik Karlsson, Head of Operations and
Senior Legal Advisor to the Swedish Sámi Reindeer Herders
Association, detailed the impacts of mining on Indigenous
Peoples’ lands in northern Europe, where major reserves of
minerals have recently been discovered.
“Sami
communities have cared for the forests, waters, and wildlife
of our regions for generations,” said Wik Karlsson. “We
understand the necessity of the green transition, but it
cannot come at the expense of our rights and the ecosystems
we protect. Indigenous Peoples’ rights are human rights
—the right to exist and to choose how to
live.
“For us, this means being included from the
very beginning, not after decisions are made,” Wik
Karlsson added. “Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
is not a box to tick; it’s the foundation for dialogue,
for mutual respect, and for building any project that
touches our lands and lives. We know our territories, our
waters, and what is at stake. Without FPIC, there is no
justice, no sustainability, and no future we have agreed to
be part of.”
Weaponization of
minerals
Julie Klinger, Associate Professor of
Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of
Delaware, described how the manufacture of weapons and other
military activities are driving demand for minerals, with
far-reaching consequences for people and the
planet.
“The same minerals essential for
wind turbines and electric vehicles are being pulled into
weapons systems used in active conflict zones,” Dr.
Klinger said. “This isn’t just a diversion of resources
– it’s a distortion of
priorities.
“By allowing defense
contractors to absorb minerals under the pretext of national
security, we are undermining climate goals, prolonging wars,
and exposing entire populations, especially Indigenous
Peoples, to intergenerational harm,” Klinger said. “We
urgently need policies that stop treating weapons
manufacturing as an unquestionable public good and start
asking whether our mineral supply chains are fueling war or
building a livable future.”
About the SIRGE
Coalition
The Securing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
in the Green Economy (SIRGE) Coalition implements
transformative solutions to secure the rights of Indigenous
Peoples in the global transition to a green economy. With
respect to the transition mineral supply chain, SIRGE
Coalition focuses on the urgent need to operationalize Free,
Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as enumerated in the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (UNDRIP). https://www.sirgecoalition.org/
About
Fern
Fern is a non-governmental organization that
works to achieve environmental and social justice with a
focus on forests and the rights of the people who depend on
them. Based in Europe, Fern monitors EU policies and
advocates for just and sustainable solutions to global
deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Through research, campaigns, and coalition-building, Fern
aims to ensure that European policies support forests and
the communities that rely on them around the world. https://www.fern.org/
