Several pieces of equipment and dredges used in illegal mining operations were destroyed by federal agents in the Tapajós Environmental Preservation Area, in Pará-Brazil. Part of the forest in the region has been badly degraded. The land belongs to the Federal Government and the indigenous peoples.
"Any kind of mining is totally forbidden in this area. We are carrying out an inspection operation precisely to check these mining areas, which are illegal, in the surroundings and inside the conservation unit. We have repeatedly fined people, destroying equipment and stopping the environmental damage, but they return and continue to insist on the crime. They try to hide the equipment that caused the environmental damage, and our aim is to locate and destroy it so as not to cause further damage to the forest," said Lincoln José Michalski, ICMBio's environmental inspection agent.

Source: Amazon Agency