Last Tuesday, the Peruvian government launched an offensive against illegal mining in the Amazon to fight illegal mining.
This specific region of the Amazon houses enormous biodiversity and was severely attacked by illegal gold miners in 2018, reaching a historic high.
“In an operation called ‘Mercury 2019’ around 1,500 Peruvian police and military officers have taken control of several localities in the Amazon region of Madre de Dios, neighboring Brazil, where illegal miners operate, cutting down forests and contaminating the area with mercury after removing gold from the riverbeds”, Europa Press informed.
In addition, Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra suspended civil liberties for a total of 60 days in the districts of Madre de Dios where the Tambopata reserve is located.
“The deforestation of gold mining reached record levels last year in the southeast of the country”, Europa Press wrote, adding that 9,280 hectares were illegally mined. In 2017 a total of 9,160 were mined, according to a report published in January by the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project, which uses satellite images to track deforestation.
