Unlawful Gold Extraction Clears 140,000 Acres of Amazon Rainforest in Peru

A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out 140,000 hectares of tropical forest in the Peruvian Amazon, intensifying as foreign, armed groups enter the region to capitalize on all-time high gold values, as per a recent study.

About five hundred forty square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since the mid-1980s, and the ecological damage is spreading rapidly throughout Peru, research found.

This mining boom is also polluting its rivers and streams. Unlawful extractors use dredges – equipment that chew up and spit out river bottoms – depositing harmful mercury employed to separate gold from soil in their wake.

Detailed satellite photographs allowed researchers to detect dredges together with forest loss for the initial instance, showing that the ecological disaster previously limited to the southern part of the country was spreading northward.

“We used to only see it in the Madre de Dios region but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” stated a director from the monitoring project.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the first time this week on global exchanges as worldwide concerns increased about financial fragility. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the value climbs, armed groups were more frequently destroying their woodlands and poisoning their rivers in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being converted into barren landscapes of barren soil marked by stagnant pools of green water.

“This small section is just a minor example,” a researcher noted, indicating a limited area of the vast red patchwork of forest clearance mapped in the report. “Consider this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination build up in fish and are transferred to the populations who eat them, causing neurological and developmental problems such as birth defects and developmental delays.

A recent study of riverside communities in Peru’s far north of Loreto found the median level of mercury was nearly four times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

Research found that hundreds of waterways have been impacted, with 989 dredges observed in the region since recent years – among them 275 in the current year on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River that is the lifeblood of ecosystems and many native populations.

“Our waterways are being contaminated – it’s the drinking water that we drink,” said a representative of several riverside communities in Loreto.

Local communities began blocking miners from moving along the River Tigre in Loreto recently, leading to gunfights with militant groups. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are unsupported. Government authorities is nowhere to be seen,” he expressed with anger.

Mining remains concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in southern Peru but new hotspots are developing in northern regions in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

They are small but once extraction begins it could expand quickly, an expert said, stating that the study was a glimpse into what was occurring across the broader Amazon region.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to examine so closely at a nation but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he commented.

Findings showed additional mining equipment appearing on Peru’s jungle frontiers with adjacent nations.

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, foreign, armed groups are more frequently entering into Peruvian territory into unregulated forest areas where government officials are doing little to stop them, as stated by an expert on crime.

Illegal organizations, such as groups from Colombia and Brazil, are more involved in the region.

“Global criminal syndicates involved in drug trade and concealing illicit gains through unlawful extraction – amid record values providing hefty returns – are alongside a administration that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the expert remarked.

An intergovernmental group of Latin American nations told Peru to address unlawful extraction or it could face economic sanctions.

But a researcher said: “Gold is just so profitable at present. I don’t see any signs of prices going down, so it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.”