Artisanal Gold Mining Is Destroying Amazonian Peatlands

Artisanal Gold Mining Is Destroying Amazonian Peatlands

For decades, wounds have surfaced in the Peruvian Amazon where the Rio Inambari merges with the Rio Madre de Dios, carving thick gashes into ancient tree stands. These almost lunar scars of barren rubble were formed at the hands of a growing enterprise capitalizing on gold that the rivers deposit throughout their floodplains. A new study published in Environmental Research Letters shows that the spread of this devastation has quickened and incre…