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An illegal gold rush has led to the destruction of one hundred forty thousand hectares of tropical forest in the Amazon region of Peru, intensifying as armed foreign factions enter the area to profit from all-time high gold values, based on findings.

About five hundred forty square miles of land have been converted for extraction activities in the Peruvian nation since the mid-1980s, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly throughout Peru, research found.

This mining boom is also contaminating its waterways. Unlawful extractors use floating excavation machines – machines that disrupt and displace riverbeds – leaving harmful mercury employed to separate gold from soil in their wake.

Ultra-high resolution aerial images enabled researchers to detect dredges together with forest loss for the first time, revealing that the ecological disaster previously limited to the southern part of the country was spreading northward.

“Initially, it was only observed in Madre de Dios but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” stated an official from the monitoring project.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the first time this period on international markets as worldwide concerns rose about economic instability. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the value climbs, militant factions were increasingly tearing down their woodlands and poisoning their water sources in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Aerial images show that previously lush forest areas are being converted into barren landscapes of grey earth marked by standing water of green water.

“This small section is just a tiny sample,” a researcher remarked, pointing to a limited area of the extensive pattern of deforestation mapped in the report. “Imagine this multiplied to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination accumulate in fish and pass to the populations who consume them, causing health and cognitive issues such as birth defects and developmental delays.

A recent investigation of communities along riverbanks in Peru’s northernmost region of Loreto found the average concentration of mercury was nearly four times the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Analysis found that 225 rivers and streams have been impacted, with nearly a thousand dredging machines observed in the region since recent years – including 275 this year alone on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River that is the lifeblood of natural habitats and dozens of Indigenous communities.

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

Residents began preventing extractors from advancing up the River Tigre in the region 40 days ago, leading to armed clashes with armed intruders. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are alone. The state is absent,” he stated with anger.

Mining is mostly located in the southern area of Madre de Dios in the south of the country but new hotspots are appearing in northern regions in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

They are small but once extraction begins it could expand quickly, a researcher said, adding that the report was a insight into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to examine so closely at a country but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he added.

Findings showed additional mining equipment appearing 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 halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, such as groups from Colombia and Brazil, 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 administration that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the expert remarked.

A political coalition of South American countries told Peru to address unlawful extraction or it could face economic sanctions.

But an expert said: “The returns from gold are immense right now. There are no indications of prices going down, so it’s probably going to deteriorate before it gets better.”