October 2013
Gold Mining Destroys Peru
In the biologically diverse region of Madre De Dios in the Peruvian Amazon, researchers have just now been able to map the true extent of gold mining. Led by Carnegie's Greg Asner and the officials from the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, the team used the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-lite (CLASlite) to detect and map large and small mining operations. The team used field surveys and airborne mapping with high-resolution satellite monitoring to display that "the geographic extent of mining has increased 400% from 1999 to 2012 and that the average annual rate of forest loss has tripled since the Great Recession of 2008". The results of the tests performed showed a greater amount of rain-forest damage than that that was previously reported by the government, NGOs, and other researchers. "In all, we found that the rate of forest loss from gold mining accelerated from 5,350 acres (2,166 hectares) per year before 2008 to15,180 acres (6,145 hectares) each year after the 2008 global financial crisis that rocketed gold prices."
Not only has the gold mining been destroying rain-forests, it releases sediment into rivers causing severe problems with the aquatic life. Peru's gold mining has also added to the widespread mercury pollution affecting the entire food chain, including the food ingested by people all over the region. "Miners also hunt wild game, depleting the rain-forest fauna around mining areas, and disrupting the ecological balance for centuries to come".
In the past, thousands of small, clandestine mines that have been successful since the economic crisis have operated unmonitored.
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