The impact of mining gold in the Region of Madre de Dios (Peru)

Gold mining has been the key economic activity in the region of Madre de Dios after 1973 and constitutes an attraction along the Madre de Dios River and others. The high price of this metal employs a great part of the population in the extracting operations by hand on the riverbanks. At this moment, Peruvian authorities have no control over large areas of the rain forest of Madre de Dios Department and have allowed illegal gold mining activities to destroy thousands of squared kilometers. Tens of thousands of people, involved in illegal gold mining, have destroyed 150,000 ha. per year in the Madre de Dios region where 50,000 kg of mercury is dumped into the environment annually. Nothing is ever going to grow there again and nobody says anything. Individuals involved in this industry are armed and go about their daily activities without any interference from environmental organizations or authorities. In fact, the industry is the main economic activity in cities like regional capital Puerto Maldonado. Rather than corruption, the lack of government control is mainly due to authorities' fear of tackling difficult issues and consequently losing their jobs.