Illegal gold mining eats into Peruvian Amazon
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00:00In the Peruvian Amazon, a forest is being lost to gold.
00:05As the metals price has surged in recent years, so has illegal mining in Madre de Dios.
00:11On average, 21,000 hectares of rainforest has been lost in the region every year since 2017.
00:19That's an area twice the size of Paris, and it's taking more than just an ecological toll for local indigenous communities.
00:28The community can't work the land. They can't plant their corn, their bananas, yucca.
00:34There's nothing left because this land is practically dead.
00:38In 2010, to curtail the impact on nature reserves, local authorities dedicated what's become known as a mining corridor,
00:465,000 hectares where miners have been granted concession to operate.
00:50But community leaders like Jamie say it hasn't addressed the problem.
00:57We have learned to live together. We have made friends with the miners and we get along well.
01:05But the underlying problem is the destruction of the territories.
01:11Those mining with the government's permission also face regular violence.
01:16Lucio says his brothers were recently attacked on the job.
01:20Two workers were attacked with machetes and my two brothers were wounded.
01:24They are now in the hospital in serious condition.
01:27Illegal gold mining has become a major source of financing for organised crime in parts of the region,
01:34and independent studies have put Peru as the largest exporter of illegal gold in South America.
01:40If the practice continues, more of the Amazon's precious rainforest will inevitably be lost.