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A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out one hundred forty thousand hectares of tropical forest in the Peruvian Amazon, accelerating as foreign, armed groups enter the area to profit from all-time high gold values, according to a report.

Approximately 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 expanding quickly throughout Peru, investigations revealed.

This mining boom is also contaminating its waterways. Illegal miners use floating excavation machines – equipment that disrupt and displace riverbeds – depositing toxic mercury used to extract gold from soil in their wake.

Ultra-high resolution aerial images enabled researchers to detect mining equipment together with forest loss for the initial instance, showing that the ecological disaster once confined to the southern part of the country was creeping northward.

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

Gold values topped $4,000 for the first time this week on global exchanges as worldwide concerns rose about financial fragility. Indigenous groups have sounded the alarm that as the value climbs, militant factions were more frequently destroying their forests and poisoning their water sources in search for the valuable mineral.

Aerial images show that previously lush forest areas are being converted into barren landscapes of barren soil pocked with stagnant pools of discolored water.

“This small section is just a tiny sample,” a researcher noted, indicating a limited area of the extensive pattern of deforestation documented in the study. “Consider this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

Mercury contamination accumulate in fish and pass to the people who eat them, leading to neurological and developmental problems such as congenital disorders and learning difficulties.

An ongoing study of riverside communities in Peru’s northernmost region of the Loreto region 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 989 dredges observed in Loreto since recent years – including two hundred seventy-five this year alone on the Nanay waterway, a branch of the Amazon that is the lifeblood of natural habitats and many native populations.

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

Local communities began preventing extractors from moving along the River Tigre in the region recently, leading to gunfights with armed intruders. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are alone. The state is absent,” he expressed with anger.

Mining is mostly located in the southern area of Madre de Dios in the south of the country but emerging zones are appearing in northern regions in multiple provinces.

They are small but once mining is established it could expand quickly, an expert noted, adding that the study was a glimpse into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to examine so closely at a nation but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he commented.

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

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, international armed factions are increasingly venturing across the border into unregulated forest areas where local authorities are taking minimal action to halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Illegal organizations, such as factions from Colombia and Brazil, are increasingly active across the border.

“International crime networks involved in drug trade and concealing illicit gains through unlawful extraction – now with peak prices providing hefty returns – are combined with a administration that has failed to act decisively against criminal enterprises,” the expert stated.

A political coalition of South American countries instructed Peru to address unlawful extraction or it could be subject to penalties.

But an expert said: “Gold is just so profitable right now. I don’t see any signs of a decline in value, so it’s likely going to deteriorate before it improves.”