The golden curse of the Peruvian Amazon
By CESAR CHELALA
NEW YORK — Madre de Dios, the name of a region in southeastern
Peru bordering Brazil and Bolivia, is a common designation for the Virgin Mary,
meaning Mother of God in Spanish.
In real life, however, the name exemplifies what intense and
unregulated gold exploration and extraction are doing to this until-now
privileged area in Peru.
Madre de Dios is a region rich in cotton, coffee, sugarcane,
cacao, Brazil nuts and palm oil. But plentiful gold has attracted tens of
thousands of illegal miners whose activities are having a deleterious effect on
precious species in the environment as well as on the health and quality of life
of both native and new populations in the region.
Alluvial gold mining in Peru's Amazon rainforest has rapidly
spread in recent years, driven by the high price of gold. Although many jungle
mining concessions have been granted by the energy and mines ministry, the
informal sector has grown out of control, and it is estimated that almost a
quarter of the gold produced in Peru, the world's sixth largest producer, is
illegal. The majority of this illegal gold comes from the Madre de Dios
region.
Local nongovernmental organizations believe that there are up to
30,000 miners in the area.
Gold deposits are mined by both large-scale operators and
small-scale miners who use hydraulic mining techniques and heavy machinery to
expose potential gold-yielding gravel deposits.
Gold is extracted by a sluice box, gold-prospecting equipment
that has been in continuous use for over a hundred years. The sluice box is used
to separate heavier sediment, and mercury is also used for amalgamating the
precious metal.
Several studies have shown that small-scale miners are less
efficient in their use of mercury than industrial miners. As a result, 2.91
pounds of mercury is released into waterways for every 2.2 pounds of gold
produced. It is estimated that more than 40 tons of mercury are absorbed into
the rivers of Madre de Dios, poisoning the food chain.
Mercury not only contaminates waterways and becomes a serious
threat to human health but is also a dangerous toxin to fish. Fish in the area
contain three times more mercury than the safe levels permitted by the World
Health Organization.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, "After fossil fuel burning,
small-scale gold mining is the world's second largest source of mercury
pollution, contributing around one-third of the world's mercury pollution."
Mercury contamination is not the only drawback of small scale
mining, however. Another significant problem is the significant amount of
deforestation it produces through clearing for the construction of roads to open
remote areas to transient settlers and land speculators. In addition,
deforestation is the result of cutting trees to obtain building material and
fuel wood.
The enormity of the damage has been documented in a study by
American, French and Peruvian researchers published in the peer-reviewed
magazine PLoS ONE. According to the study using satellite imagery from NASA,
researchers were able to assess the loss of 7,000 hectares of forest due to
artisanal gold mining in Peru between 2003 and 2009. This is an area larger than
Bermuda.
Jennifer Swenson, lead author of the study, says such enormous
deforestation is "plainly visible from space," and suggests that Peru should
limit the importation of mercury.
In addition to these problems, illegal gold mining has
significantly increased the number of 12- to 17-year-old girls and young women
drafted into prostitution rings. These young women are brought from all over the
country to brothels that have sprung up in mining camps. Many of the women that
fall into these prostitution rings are never seen again. Miners also bring
diseases to local indigenous populations.
While Peruvian authorities have sent a nearly 1,000-strong
security force to destroy river dredgers used by illegal gold miners in the
Madre de Dios region, more drastic measures are needed such as stricter
vigilance and regulation.
At stake is the survival of what has been recognized as one of
the most biologically rich areas in the world.
Cesar Chelala, M.D., Ph.D., is the author of "The Environmental
Impact on Children's Health," a publication of the Pan American Health
Organization.
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