Deforestation and Forest Degradation Due to Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: A 34-Year Perspective

Abstract

While deforestation rates decline globally they are rising in the western Amazon. Artisanal-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a large cause of this deforestation and brings with it extensive environmental, social, governance, and public health impacts, including large carbon emissions and mercury pollution. Underlying ASGM is a broad network of factors that influence its growth, distribution, and practices such as poverty, flows of legal and illegal capital, conflicting governance, and global economic trends. Despite its central role in land use and land cover change in the western Amazon and the severity of its social and environmental impacts, it is relatively poorly studied. While ASGM in southeastern Peru has been quantified previously, doing so is difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of the resulting landscape. Using a novel approach to classify mining that relies on a fusion of CLASlite and the Global Forest Change dataset, two Landsat-based deforestation detection tools, we sought to quantify ASGM-caused deforestation in the period 1984-2017 in the southern Peruvian Amazon and examine trends in the geography, methods, and impacts of ASGM across that time. We identify nearly 100,000 ha of deforestation due to ASGM in the 34-year study period, an increase of 21% compared to previous estimates. Further, we find that 10% of that deforestation occurred in 2017, with 53% occurring since 2011. Finally, we demonstrate key patterns and changes in ASGM activity and techniques through time and space and discuss their connections with, and impacts on, socio-economic factors such as land tenure, infrastructure, international markets, governance efforts, and social and environmental impacts.

Desarrollo estructural y composición florística arbórea en áreas afectadas por minería aurífera en la Amazonía peruana: a 20 años de su reforestación

“…En Madre de Dios, la minería aurífera es responsable de la deforestación de aproximadamente 100,000 ha en el periodo 1984-2017 (Csillik y Asner, 2020), 53% de esta deforestación ocurrió desde 2011 (Caballero et al, 2018). El incremento de la deforestación debido a la actividad minera en Madre de Dios está relacionado con: 1) el incremento en el precio internacional del oro (Caballero et al, 2018;Swenson et al, 2011); 2) una elevada dependencia de la economía local en la minería; 3) mayor accesibilidad a otras áreas debido a la construcción de la carretera interoceánica (Moreno-Brush et al, 2016); 4) los mineros informales representan 51% del total de la actividad minera en Madre de Dios (Asner y Tupayachi, 2016), y 5) la migración humana de las regiones altoandinas del Perú en búsqueda de trabajo de subsistencia (Cortés-McPherson, 2019). A pesar de la elevada tasa de deforestación y altos niveles de degradación de los ecosistemas, después de la actividad minera, son escasos los intentos para recuperar su productividad.…”

The outbreak of illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon boosts deforestation

“…Garimpos not only clear but also degrade forests (Espejo et al 2018), severely limiting the recovery of ecosystems after disturbance (Kalamandeen et al 2020) and particularly degrading riparian vegetation. Clearing forest and other native vegetation for industrial mining requires legal authorization and the corresponding adherence to specific terms and conditions, including the commitment to rehabilitate degraded areas.…”

Monitoring Gold Mining Activity Using SAR

“…In Peru, illegal gold mining is a serious problem that affects local populations in the southeastern region of Madre de Dios (Yard et al 2012;Tupayachi 2017, Alvarez-Berrios et al (2021). According to Caballero et al (2018), it has led to the deforestation of about 1000 km 2 of rainforest, affecting protected areas, Indigenous communities, and sustainable management areas. Gold mining is carried out throughout the year, even during the rainy season.…”

“…Optical Earth observation satellites have played a very important role in monitoring gold mining deforestation in recent years. Madre de Dios is one of the few tropical regions in the world for which there is well-documented information on annual forest loss due to this deforestation driver (Asner et al 2013;Asner and Tupayachi 2017;Caballero et al 2018;Nicolau et al 2019;Csillick and Asner 2020;Aguirre et al 2021). However, these resources do not reveal the progress of illegal mining during the rainy season and at other times when the optical images are obscured by clouds.…”