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An illegal gold rush has led to the destruction of 140,000 hectares of tropical forest in the Amazon region of Peru, accelerating as armed foreign factions enter the region to profit from all-time high gold values, according to a report.

About 540 square miles of land 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, analysis revealed.

The gold rush is also polluting its rivers and streams. Illegal miners use floating excavation machines – equipment that chew up and spit out riverbeds – depositing toxic mercury used to extract gold from soil in their wake.

Detailed satellite photographs allowed analysts to identify mining equipment together with deforestation for the initial instance, revealing that the environmental crisis once confined to the southern part of the country was spreading northward.

“We used to only see it in the Madre de Dios region but now we’re seeing it across numerous areas,” commented a director involved in the research.

The price of gold surpassed four thousand dollars for the first time this period on international markets as worldwide concerns rose about economic instability. Native communities have raised concerns that as the price soars, armed groups were more frequently destroying their woodlands and poisoning their rivers in search for the valuable mineral.

Aerial images show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being converted into lifeless moonscapes of grey earth pocked with standing water of discolored water.

“This little square is just a minor example,” an expert remarked, indicating a limited area of the extensive pattern of forest clearance mapped in the report. “Consider this multiplied to 140,000 hectares.”

Mercury contamination build up in aquatic life and pass to the populations who consume them, causing health and cognitive issues such as birth defects and learning difficulties.

An ongoing investigation of communities along riverbanks in Peru’s northernmost region of the Loreto region found the average concentration of mercury was nearly four times the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Research found that hundreds of waterways have been impacted, with nearly a thousand dredging machines spotted in Loreto since 2017 – among them 275 this year alone on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon that is the lifeblood of ecosystems and many native populations.

“Our waterways are being contaminated – it’s the drinking water that we consume,” said a representative of several riverside communities in Loreto.

Local communities began blocking miners from moving along the River Tigre in the region recently, resulting in gunfights with militant groups. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are alone. The state is nowhere to be seen,” he expressed frustrated.

Extraction activities is mostly located in the southern area of Madre de Dios in the south of the country but new hotspots are appearing in northern regions 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 report was a insight into what was occurring across the rest of the Amazon.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to look in this detail at a country but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he added.

Research showed additional mining equipment appearing on Peru’s jungle frontiers with Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.

As gold values exceed four thousand dollars per ounce, foreign, armed groups are more frequently entering into Peruvian territory into unregulated forest areas where local authorities are taking minimal action to stop them, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, including factions from neighboring countries, are increasingly active across the border.

“Global criminal syndicates trafficking cocaine and concealing illicit gains through illegal gold mining – now with peak prices providing hefty returns – are alongside a government that has failed to act decisively against criminal enterprises,” the analyst remarked.

A political coalition of South American countries instructed Peru to get serious about illegal mining or it could be subject to penalties.

But a researcher commented: “The returns from gold are immense at present. There are no indications of prices going down, so it’s likely going to deteriorate before it gets better.”