THE DECREE IS THE BIGGEST ATTACK ON THE AMAZON IN THE PAST 50 YEARS.

The reserve has been protected since 1984 and covers 47,000 square kilometres — nearly the size of Nova Scotia. About one-third of the reserve will be opened to miners.

The move comes as the country has been struggling to escape a crushing economic crisis that has seen unemployment rise above 12 per cent. In a statement to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Mining and Energy Minister Fernando Coelho Filho suggested the move could help drag the country out of recession.

“The objective of the measure is to attract new investments, generating wealth for the country and employment and income for society, always based on the precepts of sustainability,” Filho said.

There is no information regarding the value of the gold and other minerals — tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese — within the reserve, but the ministry has said it believes an “unparalleled” project can be forged.

That hasn’t stopped some of the world’s largest mining companies — particularly those from Canada, the U.S., Australia, and South Africa — from showing interest in exploring the region in the past, according to O Globo.

The RENCA reserve encompasses nine protected parks, forests, biological and ecological reserves and Indigenous lands between the Para and Amapa states. The Waiapi tribe — with a population of approximately 900 — live there. Their lands — along with the parks and forests — are still protected under the decree.

Opposition senator Randolfe Rodrigues, who proposed a bill to stop the mining, suggested he may now go as far as bringing a lawsuit.

“The decree is the biggest attack on the Amazon in the past 50 years,” Rodrigues told O Globo. “Not even the military dictatorship dared so much.”

Brazil will now open its doors to foreign miners eager to strip the area of what is thought to be a substantial gold deposit.

A WWF Brazil spokesperson told O Globo there’s little chance the reserve’s Indigenous communities and lush forests will remain unharmed. Michel de Souza, the group’s co-ordinator of public policies, called the decree “a catastrophe.”

“The Amazon rainforest is our greatest asset,” de Souza said. “In this moment of despair and crisis, they’re putting the protected areas within the reserve at risk.”