Militant factions devastate invaluable rainforest to exploit soaring gold market, study reveals
An illicit gold mining surge has led to the deforestation of 140,000 hectares within Peru’s Amazon basin, with the phenomenon intensifying as foreign armed factions infiltrate the area to take advantage of unprecedented gold prices, a recent investigation shows.
Since 1984, approximately 540 square miles of rainforest have been cleared for mining activities in Peru, and this environmental degradation is rapidly expanding throughout the nation, according to findings by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) in collaboration with the Peruvian conservation group Conservación Amazónica.
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