Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-firm-lobbies-brazil-amazon-potash-mine-permit-2022-03-31/
Toronto based potash Brazil Potash Corp urges Brazil to open a potash mine in the Amazon to stop reliance on imports, which were disrupted with the Ukrainian War. The company’s owner, Stan Bharti, met with Bolsonaro to discuss the Amazon mining project worth 2.5 billion dollars which was held up since 2017 due to the indigenous Mura people. The project doesn’t just depend on Bolsonaro, but also depends on a ruling by Federal Judge Jaiza Fraxe, who is looking over talks with the Mura people to make sure they have a fair say. Brazil Potash said the entrance to the planned mine will not be on indigenous land. The consultations are going to take time as they involve 44 Mura villages.
This is an important issue as Brazil is one of the world’s biggest food producers and they rely on imports for 85% of its fertilizer to grow the crops. The disruption of imports from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine makes the urgency of becoming more self reliant on potash more pressing. It seems that they are leaning towards mining in the Amazon as the Ukrainian war doesn’t seem to be slowing down yet. Though they are understanding the Mura’s rights to be consulted, it looks like they will mine anyway with the excuse that the opening won’t be on the reservations. This is worrisome because this will have a significant cultural impact on the Mura people, and this operation can open the door for more operations on the Amazon, which can lead to deforestation.
Much like many industries nowadays because of the Ukrainian War, Brazil’s agricultural industry is facing hardship as the much of the potash used in their farming came from Russia. This shows the complex interdependence of the world which is a concept we discussed in class. Not only does Brazil rely on potash imports from Russia, but many other countries rely on agriculture imports from Brazil. In some ways, it seems necessary for them to mine in the Amazon in order to become self-sufficient as we have learned that you can not always depend on other countries to meet your needs. This is only if they take extreme precautions to not expand the mining and slowly push indigenous people out or harm the Amazon.