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A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out 140,000 hectares of tropical forest in the Amazon region of Peru, intensifying as foreign, armed groups enter the area to profit from record gold prices, based on findings.

About 540 square miles of territory have been converted for extraction activities in the South American country since the mid-1980s, and the ecological damage is growing at an alarming rate throughout Peru, research discovered.

The gold rush is also contaminating its waterways. Illegal miners use floating excavation machines – machines that chew up and spit out river bottoms – depositing toxic mercury employed to separate gold from sediment in their wake.

Detailed satellite photographs enabled analysts to identify dredges alongside deforestation for the initial instance, revealing that the environmental crisis previously limited to the south of the country was spreading north.

“We used to only see it in the Madre de Dios region but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” commented an official involved in the research.

The price of gold topped $4,000 for the initial occasion this period on global exchanges as worldwide concerns increased about financial fragility. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the value climbs, militant factions were increasingly destroying their forests and contaminating their rivers in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

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

“This little square is just a minor example,” a researcher remarked, pointing to a limited area of the vast red patchwork of deforestation mapped in the report. “Imagine this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

The mercury residues build up in fish and pass to the populations who consume them, leading to health and cognitive issues such as birth defects and developmental delays.

An ongoing study of communities along riverbanks in Peru’s northernmost region of Loreto found the average concentration of mercury was nearly four times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

Analysis found that hundreds of waterways have been affected, with nearly a thousand dredging machines spotted in Loreto since 2017 – including 275 in the current year on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon that is the lifeblood of natural habitats and dozens of Indigenous communities.

“They are poisoning our rivers – it’s the water that we consume,” said a spokesperson of several riverside communities in Loreto.

Residents began preventing extractors from advancing up the Tigre River in the region recently, leading to gunfights with militant groups. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are unsupported. The state is absent,” he stated with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the southern area of Madre de Dios in southern Peru but new hotspots are developing farther north in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

These areas are limited but once mining is established it could expand quickly, a researcher noted, stating that the study was a insight 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 nation but I think in neighboring countries we are going to see similar patterns,” he added.

Findings showed more dredges appearing on Peru’s jungle frontiers with Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, foreign, armed groups are increasingly venturing into Peruvian territory into Peru’s lawless jungles where government officials are doing little to halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, including groups from neighboring countries, are more involved in the region.

“Global criminal syndicates trafficking cocaine and laundering profits through unlawful extraction – amid record values yielding high profits – are alongside a administration that has failed to act decisively against criminal enterprises,” the expert remarked.

An intergovernmental group of South American countries instructed Peru to address illegal mining or it could be subject to penalties.

But an expert said: “Gold is just so profitable at present. There are no indications of a decline in value, so it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better.”