Brazilian environmentalists have sounded the alarm on land issues affecting Indigenous people after the direction of political discourse following recent national election results.
The far-right gains in Brazil's Congress may threaten Indigenous livelihoods which play significant roles in protecting the Amazon River and its ecosystems ahead of the next Presidential runoff vote.
Flavio Bolsonaro looks set to face incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after the son of controversial former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's Liberal Party won around a third of the Senate seats in addition to nearly a quarter of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, making it the largest party in both houses.
"The new balance of power strengthens groups that support mining on Indigenous lands and changes to territorial and environmental protections, regardless of who wins the runoff," Amazon Watch, a nonprofit focused on environmental protection and Indigenous rights, said in a statement.
Since gaining power in 2023, the government of Mr Lula da Silva has reversed a surge in Amazon deforestation under Mr Bolsonaro's father's term, stepped up efforts against illegal gold mining, created a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and rebuilt the Indigenous affairs agency.
However bipartisan critics say the moves have still fallen short of key promises, including the demarcation of Indigenous lands.
During his own campaign, Mr Bolsonaro pledged to open Indigenous lands up to economic activities without clarifying whether he would establish deforestation rules on their territory.
Several lawmakers elected in Amazon states have also backed mining on Indigenous lands or weaker environmental protections in favour of deforestation.
The scientific findings of mercury contamination from illegal gold mining have been dismissed as "falsehoods", according to Fernando Máximo, an outspoken Liberal Party senator.
"Brazil emerges from these elections with a Congress that is even far more aggressive towards Indigenous rights," the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the organisation which leads and represents hundreds of Indigenous tribes, said in a statement.
Protecting Indigenous territories is widely considered an effective way to curbing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator of the planet's climate.
A large 2022 collaborative environmental mapping project found Indigenous territories in Brazil lost just one per cent of their native vegetation over the past three decades compared with 20 per cent on private land across the nation.
Under Brazilian law, any mineral research or mining activity on Indigenous territories requires Congress' approval, in addition to consulting its local communities.
The next Congress will inevitably rule on mining on Indigenous land after the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to pass legislation regulating the issue early next year.
Marcos Sabaru, an Indigenous political strategist with the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said Mr Bolsonaro's pledge to allow Indigenous people to mine on their lands would face significant legal hurdles, as Indigenous lands and their mineral resources technically belongs to the Federal government.
"If they open up Indigenous land and it no longer belongs to the Federal government, then who does it belong to? Ranchers and mining companies? Indigenous people?" he said.
"We would be setting a precedent with no way of knowing where it would lead."
