Illegal gold mining clears 140,000 hectares of Peruvian Amazon | Deforestation

An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region, according to a report.

Nearly 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and environmental destruction is rapidly spreading across the country, the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) and Peruvian partner organization Conservación Amazónica monitor.

The gold rush is also poisoning waterways. Illegal miners use floating machines – which trample and trample riverbeds – toxic mercury, which is then used to extract gold from sediment.

Ultra-high-resolution aerial images allowed MAAP to identify scallops alongside deforestation for the first time, enabling them to identify golden minnows and revealing that what was once an environmental crisis in the south of the country is drifting north.

“We were only seeing this in the Madre de Dios region, but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” said Matt Finer, director of Maap.

The price of gold surpassed $4,000 for the first time on international markets this week as global anxiety grows over financial fragility. Indigenous groups have sounded the alarm that, as the price of Soars, armed groups are increasingly tearing up their forests and poisoning their rivers in pursuit of the precious metal.

Aerial images from MAAP Show that once dense green forest areas have been transformed into lifeless moeficaps of the gray world pocked with pools of stagnant green water.

“This little square is just a small sample,” Finer says, pointing to a small section of the vast red patchwork of deforestation mapped in the report. “Imagine that multiplied by 140,000 hectares.”

Mercury residues accumulate in fish and transfer them to people who eat them, causing neurological and developmental problems such as birth defects and learning disabilities.

an end A study of riverside communities in Peru’s northernmost region of Loreto found median mercury levels to be nearly four times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

MAAP’s analysis found that 225 rivers and streams have been affected by 989 dredges in Loreto since 2017 – this year alone 275, a tributary of the Amazon that is the lifeblood of ecosystems and dozens of indigenous communities.

“They are poisoning our rivers – the water we drink,” said Roberto Tafur Shupingahua, a representative of several Riverside communities in Loreto.

Shupingahua said local communities began blocking miners from advancing across the Tigre River at Loreto 40 days ago, leading to gunfights with armed intruders. “We have no choice but to fight, but we are alone. The state is nowhere to be seen,” he said.

Mining is concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in southern Peru, but new hotspots are emerging further north in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

They’re small, but mining could expand quickly once established, Finer said, adding that the report is a look at what’s happening in the rest of the Amazon.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to look at this detail in one country, but I think we’ll see exactly the same thing in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia,” he said.

MAAP’s report showed increased browsing in the forest margins of Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia and Peru.

Ounce by ounce, foreign, armed groups are increasingly entering Peru’s lawless jungles, where local authorities do little to stop them, said Bram Ebus, a criminologist and consultant with the International Crisis Group.

Criminal networks including Comandos de la Frontera Colombia and Comando Vermelho from Brazil are increasingly active along the border.

“International criminal networks are combining cocaine and laundering profits through illegal gold mining – now at top prices that yield hefty returns – with a government in Lima that does not have a serious crackdown on organized crime,” Ebus said.

Anean Group – A political coalition of South American countries – said Peru must get serious about illegal mining on Tuesday or face economic sanctions.

But Finer said: “Gold is very profitable right now. I don’t see prices coming down, so it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.”