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

Approximately 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since the mid-1980s, and the environmental destruction is growing at an alarming rate across the country, research discovered.

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

Ultra-high resolution aerial images allowed researchers to detect mining equipment alongside forest loss for the initial instance, showing that the environmental crisis previously limited to the south of the country was creeping north.

“We used to only see it in the Madre de Dios region but now we’re seeing it across numerous areas,” stated an official from the monitoring project.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the initial occasion this week on global exchanges as global anxiety increased about economic instability. Native communities have sounded the alarm that as the value climbs, militant factions were increasingly tearing down their forests and contaminating their rivers in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Aerial images show that previously lush forest areas are being transformed into barren landscapes of barren soil pocked with standing water of green water.

“This small section is just a minor example,” a researcher remarked, pointing to a small section of the extensive pattern of deforestation documented in the study. “Imagine this multiplied to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination accumulate in aquatic life and are transferred to the populations who eat them, causing health and cognitive issues such as birth defects and learning difficulties.

A recent study of riverside communities in Peru’s northernmost region of the Loreto region found the median level of mercury was almost quadruple the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Research found that 225 rivers and streams have been impacted, with 989 dredges observed in Loreto since recent years – among them 275 this year alone on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River that is the lifeblood of ecosystems and dozens of Indigenous communities.

“They are poisoning our rivers – it’s the drinking water that we consume,” said a representative of multiple local communities in Loreto.

Residents began preventing extractors from advancing up the Tigre River in Loreto recently, leading to armed clashes with militant groups. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are unsupported. The state is nowhere to be seen,” he expressed with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the southern area of Madre de Dios in the south of the country but new hotspots are developing in northern regions in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

These areas are limited but once mining is established it could expand quickly, a researcher said, adding that the study was a glimpse into what was occurring across the broader Amazon region.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to examine so closely at a nation but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see similar patterns,” he commented.

Research showed more dredges being detected on Peru’s forest borders 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 stop them, according to a criminologist.

Criminal networks, including groups from neighboring countries, are more involved in the region.

“International crime networks trafficking cocaine and concealing illicit gains through unlawful extraction – amid record values providing hefty returns – are alongside a government that has failed to act decisively against organised crime,” the expert remarked.

An intergovernmental group of Latin American nations told Peru to get serious about unlawful extraction or it could be subject to penalties.

But a researcher said: “Gold is just so profitable at present. There are no indications of prices going down, so it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better.”