Gold Rush Devastates Peru's Amazon Rainforest

Peru's Amazon rainforest is being ravaged by an explosion of illegal gold mining. The Peruvian Navy and military are conducting a crackdown on the destructive activity, but it's proving difficult to catch those responsible.

The price of gold has tripled since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, attracting tens of thousands of miners to protected Amazon parks and Indigenous reserves. The resulting deforestation is staggering: over 140,000 hectares have been lost to mining in Madre de Dios, with 97.5% of that total coming from this single region.

The military commander of Madre de Dios, Gen Víctor Cotrina, acknowledged the challenges posed by the new threat. 'Gold prices have risen,' he said. 'That's why, if a miner's motor is destroyed, he'll replace it quickly because gold is at its peak price; the very next day he's back to his mining activities.'

The Peruvian Economics Institute estimates that illegal gold mining could reach as much as $18 billion in value by the end of 2026. The Financial Investigation Unit found that illegal mining accounted for nearly 60% of all investigations in terms of value between 2021 and 2025, far higher than drug trafficking or tax crimes.

The military has been conducting raids on mining camps, but it's proving difficult to catch those responsible. 'In these places, the big fish, the owners, are rarely caught,' said Ronal Flores, a deputy prosecutor for Peru's Office of the attorney General. 'It's usually the low-level operatives who we find.'

The problem is compounded by corruption and patchy enforcement. The military has destroyed an estimated $500m in machinery, supplies, and illegal dredgers, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the magnitude of the damage being caused.