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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – New report released at COP30 reveals social, cultural, and environmental risks of Canadian mining activity in the Brazilian Amazon.
Photo credit: Amazon Watch, VII General Assembly of the Mura People, 29-31 May 2025
BELÉM, Brazil – A new report published by university legal clinics in Brazil, Canada, and the U.S warns that a Canadian company’s potash mining project in the Brazilian Amazon poses significant and potentially irreversible risks to Indigenous communities and the Amazon.
Unveiled Friday at the UN COP30 summit in Brazil, alongside Mura community members, the report “Resistance: Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining in Brazil’s Amazon” documents alleged environmental impacts and human rights concerns linked to the Autazes Potash Project — a mine being developed by Toronto-based company Brazil Potash on or near the lands of the Mura people, who inhabit territories in 37 communities along the Madeira, Amazonas, and Purus Rivers.
The report is jointly published by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Graduate Program in Law (PPGD/UFRGS), the Observatory of Socio-Environmental Law and Human Rights in the Amazon of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), and the University of Toronto Jackman Law’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP).
The report draws extensively upon interviews conducted with Mura community members and leaders in Lago do Soares and Urucurituba — two villages located near planned mining infrastructure sites and expected to be among the most severely affected by the project.
“At this crucial time, when world leaders are gathered in Brazil for COP30, our report sounds the alarm on the risk of irreparable harm that the pursuit of potash mining poses on the Amazon and its fragile ecosystem,” said Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, CLIHHR Faculty Director. “The Amazon is one of the planet’s last great climate buffers. Mining here undermines global efforts to curb emissions and protect biodiversity.”
The findings reveal serious human rights and environmental concerns tied to Brazil Potash’s operations, including threats to the Mura peoples’ health, access to water and food, cultural survival, and the integrity of freshwater systems.
“The mine is being pursued despite an ongoing Indigenous land demarcation process, active domestic lawsuits, and resistance from Mura communities who allege violations of their rights to consultation and to free, prior, and informed consent — rights protected under the Brazilian Constitution and international human rights law,” said Fernanda Frizzo Bragato, UFRGS Professor.
“We call on Brazil to respect, protect and uphold the fundamental rights of the Mura people to self-determination, to occupy their ancestral lands, and to exist and continue as a people,” said Caroline Barbosa, UFAM Professor.
The report also echoes longstanding concerns raised by UN treaty bodies regarding Canada's failure to take effective measures to hold Canadian corporations accountable for human rights violations abroad.
“Canada must act to protect the human rights of Indigenous communities affected by Canadian corporate conduct,” said IHRP Director Sandra Wisner. “Canada claims to be a climate and human rights leader, but those words must be followed by concrete action.”
Brazil Potash’s Autazes Potash Project is the subject of three ongoing lawsuits in Brazil and Mura community members claim the project area overlaps with their Indigenous lands under a pending demarcation process, which if successful may render the mine’s license to operate invalid. The US$2.5 billion mining project, meant to extract and refine sylvinite from the Amazon River basin into potash, the principal ingredient in fertilizer, began exploratory drilling in 2010 and is currently under construction.
The Mura Indigenous Council’s (CIM) protest of the report launch, asking that their consultation approving the project be respected, is evidence of the deep community divisions created by the project. As detailed in the report, other Mura community organizations, including the Organization of Mura Indigenous Leaders of Careiro da Várzea (OLIMCV) and the Lago do Soares Community Association, allege that CIM’s 2023 consultation is illegitimate as it did not include all Mura communities.
Read the full report in English here.
Read the full report in Portuguese here.
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The Graduate Program in Law at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (PPGD/UFRGS) is a leading center for high-impact legal scholarship in Porto Allegre, Brazil, offering Master’s and Doctoral degrees. The faculty of distinguished scholars conducts rigorous research and community-engaged projects, training jurists for critical societal engagement and transformative work in law and policy.
The Observatory of Socio-Environmental Law and Human Rights in the Amazon is a research group accredited by the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). Its goal is to conduct research in the Amazon region involving the rights of Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and traditional populations.
The Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR) is a leading global center for the study, teaching and promotion of human rights. The CLIHHR works to protect human rights, prevent identity-based violence, and secure justice for survivors and communities in the wake of atrocity crimes.
The International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law serves as a centre for international human rights work. The IHRP aims to encourage Canada’s adherence to its own international human rights commitments by ensuring accountability of its harms worldwide and those of third parties to which it is meant to regulate, including Canadian corporations.
Contact Information:
Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, CLIHHR Faculty Director
Fernanda Frizzo Bragato, UFRGS Professor
Caroline Barbosa Contente Nogueira, UFAM Professor
Sandra Wisner, IHRP Director
Nabila Khan, IHRP Research Associate