🔗 Share this article

A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out one hundred forty thousand hectares of tropical forest in the Amazon region of Peru, intensifying as armed foreign factions enter the region to capitalize on all-time high gold values, as per a recent study.

Approximately five hundred forty square miles of territory have been converted for extraction activities in the South American country since 1984, and the ecological damage is spreading rapidly across the country, investigations found.

The gold rush is also poisoning its rivers and streams. Illegal miners use floating excavation machines – equipment that chew up and spit out riverbeds – depositing harmful mercury used to extract gold from soil in their path.

Detailed satellite photographs allowed analysts to detect mining equipment alongside deforestation for the first time, revealing that the environmental crisis once confined to the south of the country was spreading northward.

“Initially, it was only observed in Madre de Dios but now we’re seeing it across numerous areas,” stated a director involved in the research.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the first time this period on international markets as worldwide concerns increased about economic instability. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the value climbs, armed groups were increasingly destroying their forests and poisoning their water sources in search for the precious metal.

Aerial images show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being transformed into lifeless moonscapes of grey earth pocked with stagnant pools of green water.

“This little square is just a minor example,” a researcher remarked, pointing to a small section of the extensive pattern of forest clearance documented in the study. “Consider this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

The mercury residues accumulate in fish and are transferred to the people who eat them, leading to neurological and developmental problems such as congenital disorders and learning difficulties.

An ongoing investigation of riverside communities in Peru’s far north of the Loreto region found the average concentration of mercury was almost quadruple the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Research found that hundreds of waterways have been affected, with 989 dredges observed in the region since recent years – among them two hundred seventy-five this year alone on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River that is the vital source of ecosystems and dozens of Indigenous communities.

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

Residents began preventing extractors from advancing up the Tigre River in Loreto recently, leading to armed clashes with militant groups. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are unsupported. The state is absent,” he stated with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in southern Peru but emerging zones are developing in northern regions in multiple provinces.

They are small but once mining is established it could expand quickly, a researcher noted, stating that the study was a insight into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to look in this detail at a nation but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see similar patterns,” he added.

Findings showed additional mining equipment being detected on Peru’s jungle frontiers with Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, foreign, armed groups are increasingly venturing into Peruvian territory into Peru’s lawless jungles where local authorities are taking minimal action to halt their activities, as stated by a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, such as groups from neighboring countries, are increasingly active across the border.

“International crime networks involved in drug trade and concealing illicit gains through unlawful extraction – amid record values providing hefty returns – are combined with a administration that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the analyst stated.

An intergovernmental group of Latin American nations told Peru to get serious about illegal mining or it could face economic sanctions.

But an expert said: “The returns from gold are immense at present. I don’t see any signs of a decline in value, so it’s likely going to deteriorate before it gets better.”