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An illegal gold rush has wiped out one hundred forty thousand hectares of tropical forest in the Amazon region of Peru, accelerating as armed foreign factions move into the region to capitalize on record gold prices, based on findings.

About five hundred forty square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since the mid-1980s, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly across the country, research revealed.

The gold rush is also poisoning its rivers and streams. Unlawful extractors use floating excavation machines – equipment that chew up and spit out river bottoms – leaving harmful mercury used to extract gold from soil in their wake.

Detailed satellite photographs enabled analysts to detect mining equipment alongside deforestation for the first time, revealing that the ecological disaster once confined to the southern part 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 involved in the research.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the initial occasion this period on global exchanges as global anxiety rose about economic instability. Native communities have sounded the alarm that as the value climbs, armed groups were more frequently destroying their woodlands and contaminating their water sources in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being transformed into lifeless moonscapes of barren soil pocked with standing water of green water.

“This little square is just a minor example,” an expert remarked, pointing to a limited area of the vast red patchwork of deforestation mapped in the report. “Imagine this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination build up in aquatic life and are transferred to the populations who consume them, leading to neurological and developmental problems such as congenital disorders and developmental delays.

An ongoing investigation of riverside communities in Peru’s far north of the Loreto region found the average concentration of mercury was almost quadruple the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Analysis found that hundreds of waterways have been impacted, with nearly a thousand dredging machines spotted in the region since recent years – among them two hundred seventy-five this year alone on the Nanay waterway, a branch of the Amazon that is the vital source of ecosystems and many native populations.

“Our waterways are being contaminated – it’s the water that we drink,” said a representative of multiple local communities in Loreto.

Local communities began preventing extractors from moving along the Tigre River in Loreto recently, resulting in armed clashes with militant groups. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are unsupported. The state is absent,” he stated frustrated.

Mining remains concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in the south of the country but new hotspots are appearing farther north in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

They are small but once mining is established it could expand quickly, an expert noted, adding that the report was a glimpse into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to examine so closely at a country but I think in neighboring countries we are going to see similar patterns,” he commented.

Findings showed additional mining equipment being detected on Peru’s jungle frontiers with adjacent nations.

As gold values exceed four thousand dollars per ounce, foreign, armed groups are more frequently entering into Peruvian territory into Peru’s lawless jungles where local authorities are doing little to stop them, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, including factions from Colombia and Brazil, are increasingly active across the border.

“International crime networks involved in drug trade and laundering profits through unlawful extraction – amid record values yielding high profits – are alongside a government that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the expert remarked.

A political coalition of South American countries instructed Peru to address unlawful extraction or it could be subject to penalties.

But a researcher commented: “The returns from gold are immense right now. There are no indications of prices going down, so it’s probably going to get worse before it improves.”