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An illegal gold rush has wiped out one hundred forty thousand hectares of tropical forest in the Peruvian Amazon, accelerating as foreign, armed groups enter the area to profit from all-time high gold values, 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 growing at an alarming rate throughout Peru, analysis found.

This mining boom is also contaminating its rivers and streams. Illegal miners use dredges – equipment that disrupt and displace riverbeds – leaving toxic mercury used to extract gold from sediment in their wake.

Detailed satellite photographs allowed analysts to identify dredges alongside forest loss for the first time, showing that the environmental crisis once confined to the south of the country was creeping north.

“Initially, it was only observed in Madre de Dios but now we’re seeing it across numerous areas,” stated a director involved in the research.

Gold values surpassed four thousand dollars for the first time this period on international markets as worldwide concerns increased about financial fragility. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the price soars, militant factions were increasingly destroying their woodlands and contaminating their rivers in search for the precious metal.

Aerial images show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being converted into lifeless moonscapes of grey earth marked by stagnant pools of green water.

“This little square is just a tiny sample,” an expert remarked, pointing to a limited area of the extensive pattern of deforestation documented in the study. “Consider this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination accumulate in fish and are transferred to the populations who consume them, causing neurological and developmental problems such as birth defects and developmental delays.

An ongoing investigation of communities along riverbanks in Peru’s far north of Loreto found the median level of mercury was almost quadruple the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Analysis found that 225 rivers and streams have been affected, with 989 dredges observed in Loreto since recent years – including two hundred seventy-five this year alone on the Nanay waterway, a branch of the Amazon River that is the vital source of ecosystems and many native populations.

“They are poisoning our rivers – it’s the water that we drink,” said a spokesperson of multiple local communities in the area.

Local communities began preventing extractors from moving along the River Tigre in the region 40 days ago, leading to armed clashes with militant groups. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are alone. Government authorities is absent,” he stated 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 farther north in multiple provinces.

These areas are limited but once mining is established it could grow rapidly, an expert said, stating 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 look in this detail at a country but I think in neighboring countries we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he added.

Findings showed more dredges being detected on Peru’s forest borders with adjacent nations.

As gold values exceed four thousand dollars per ounce, foreign, armed groups are increasingly venturing across the border into Peru’s lawless jungles where government officials are taking minimal action to halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, such as factions from neighboring countries, are more involved in the region.

“Global criminal syndicates trafficking cocaine and laundering profits through unlawful extraction – now with peak prices yielding high profits – are combined with a government that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the analyst stated.

A political coalition of Latin American nations instructed Peru to get serious about illegal mining or it could face economic sanctions.

But a researcher said: “The returns from gold are immense right now. I don’t see any signs of a decline in value, so it’s probably going to deteriorate before it gets better.”