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An illegal gold rush has wiped out one hundred forty thousand hectares of rainforest in the Amazon region of Peru, intensifying as armed foreign factions move into the area to capitalize on record gold prices, according to a report.

Roughly 540 square miles of territory have been cleared for mining in the South American country since the mid-1980s, and the ecological damage is spreading rapidly across the country, investigations discovered.

The gold rush is also polluting its waterways. Unlawful extractors use floating excavation machines – equipment that disrupt and displace river bottoms – depositing harmful mercury employed to separate gold from soil in their path.

Ultra-high resolution aerial images allowed analysts to detect dredges together with forest loss for the initial instance, showing that the environmental crisis previously limited to the south of the country was spreading north.

“Initially, it was only observed in Madre de Dios but now we’re seeing it across numerous areas,” commented an official from the monitoring project.

Gold values surpassed four thousand dollars for the initial occasion this period on global exchanges as worldwide concerns rose about economic instability. Native communities have raised concerns that as the price soars, armed groups were more frequently tearing down their forests and poisoning their water sources in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos 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 noted, pointing to a limited area of the extensive pattern of forest clearance mapped in the report. “Imagine this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

The mercury residues accumulate in aquatic life and are transferred to the people who eat them, leading to health and cognitive issues such as congenital disorders and learning difficulties.

A recent investigation of communities along riverbanks in Peru’s far north of Loreto found the median level of mercury was almost quadruple the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

Research found that hundreds of waterways have been impacted, with nearly a thousand dredging machines spotted in the region since recent years – among them 275 this year alone on the Nanay waterway, a branch of the Amazon River that is the vital source of ecosystems and many native populations.

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

Residents began preventing extractors from moving along the Tigre River in the region recently, leading to gunfights with armed intruders. “We are forced to defend ourselves but we are unsupported. The state is absent,” he stated frustrated.

Extraction activities is mostly located in the Madre de Dios region in the south of the country but new hotspots are developing in northern regions in multiple provinces.

These areas are limited but once extraction begins it could expand quickly, a researcher noted, stating that the report was a glimpse into what was occurring across the broader Amazon region.

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

Research showed additional mining equipment appearing on Peru’s jungle frontiers with adjacent nations.

As gold values exceed four thousand dollars per ounce, international armed factions are increasingly venturing across the border into Peru’s lawless jungles where government officials are doing little to halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Criminal networks, including groups from Colombia and Brazil, are more involved across the border.

“Global criminal syndicates involved in drug trade and laundering profits through illegal gold mining – now with peak prices yielding high profits – are alongside a government that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the analyst stated.

An intergovernmental group of Latin American nations told Peru to address illegal mining or it could be subject to penalties.

But a researcher said: “Gold is just so profitable right now. There are no indications of a decline in value, so it’s likely going to deteriorate before it gets better.”