A decade after Mariana dam collapse, COP30 tests Brazil’s commitment to environmental justice

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A week before what the Indigenous Krenak people now call “the death of the river,” they say they could feel it coming. The birds stopped singing, the air grew heavy, and an unusual silence settled over their village in Minas Gerais, a southeastern Brazilian state where forested hills give way to the winding Doce River.

Then, on Nov. 5, 2015, the mud came.

A mining dam owned by Samarco — a joint venture between Brazilian company Vale and Anglo-Australian giant BHP Billiton — burst upstream near the town of Mariana, unleashing a torrent of toxic iron ore waste. It buried the nearby community of Bento Rodrigues and swept down the Doce River valley, killing 19 people and contaminating waterways for nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

For the Krenak people, who once relied on the river for food, rituals, and daily life, the damage was not just environmental but spiritual.

“It was the saddest day for my people,” said Shirley Djukurnã Krenak, an Indigenous leader whose community has lived for generations along the Doce River. “We felt the death of the river before it arrived.”

After the 2015 collapse, the state of Minas Gerais weakened its environmental licensing laws — a move Guetta said directly contributed to the Brumadinho causes disaster in 2019which killed 270 people.

In October 2024, Brazil’s government and the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo signed a 132 billion-reais ($23 billion) settlement with Samarcothe mine’s operator, and its owners, Vale and BHP, to fund social and environmental repairs. The record deal which will bring the total payment to 170 billion-reais ($30 billion) includes aid for affected communities, but critics say deeper flaws in Brazil’s environmental governance remain.

“The Mariana disaster showed how fragile Brazil’s system of environmental control really is,” Guetta said. “Instead of learning from it, we’ve seen a process of deregulation.”

Brazil’s Congress approved a law in 2023, which restricts Indigenous land claims, and this year passed what activists call the “devastation bill,” which would relax environmental licensing nationwide. Environmentalists warn both threaten to undermine the country’s own climate goals under the Paris Agreement, the 2015 global pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.

Now, Brazil’s Congress is also considering a national bill that would further loosen oversight of mining and industrial projects and “practically dismantle Brazil’s environmental licensing system,” Guetta said.

He added that Brazil’s environmental agencies remain underfunded and understaffed, even as mining and agribusiness expand deeper into fragile ecosystems.

Brazil’s environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Skepticism over ‘Indigenous COP’

Krenak told The Associated Press that her community will not be attending COP30. She sees the climate summit as distant from the realities faced by Indigenous peoples and full of “greenwashing” and false promises.

“If all the previous COPs had worked, we wouldn’t still be talking about crimes like this,” she said.

Instead, she said, true climate action begins with protecting rivers and forests — and recognizing Indigenous territories.

Anthropologist Ana Magdalena Hurtado, who has spent decades working with Indigenous communities in South America, said she shares that concern.

“My worry is, this all looks very pretty, but the people who will walk away feeling wonderful are the urban academics and policymakers — not those living in remote territories,” said Hurtado, a professor of anthropology and global health at Arizona State University.

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