Mercury: An Amazon Emergency
EIA Briefing to Minamata COP-6
Criminal organizations involved in drug, weapons, and human trafficking have taken control of major international and domestic flows of mercury that feed the expansion of illegal gold mining across the Amazon. Over 400 tons of mercury are estimated to enter the Amazon Basin annually, representing one of the world’s largest uncontrolled releases of mercury into the environment.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury has led to positive and encouraging results in the phase-out of mercury-added products , strengthened capacity for mercury monitoring, inventory, and improved national reporting. According to EIA’s analysis, the current COP-6 agenda and proposed decisions do not sufficiently reflect or address the urgent needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, the escalating illegal flow of mercury, and its underlying causes. The scale of this crisis is now comparable to global emissions and release of mercury from all industrial sectors combined, underscoring the urgency for Parties to act beyond compliance and toward enforcement coordination.
