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A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Amazon region of Peru, intensifying as foreign, armed groups enter the area to profit from record gold prices, according to a report.

Approximately five hundred forty square miles of territory have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and the ecological damage is spreading rapidly across the country, investigations discovered.

The gold rush is also contaminating its rivers and streams. Unlawful extractors use floating excavation machines – machines that chew up and spit out river bottoms – leaving harmful mercury used to extract gold from soil in their path.

Ultra-high resolution aerial images allowed analysts to identify mining equipment alongside deforestation for the initial instance, revealing that the ecological disaster once confined to the southern part of the country was spreading north.

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

Gold values surpassed four thousand dollars for the initial occasion this week on international markets as worldwide concerns rose about financial fragility. Native communities have raised concerns that as the value climbs, militant factions were increasingly destroying their forests and contaminating their rivers in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos show that once dense swathes of green jungle are being converted into lifeless moonscapes of barren soil marked by standing water of green water.

“This little square is just a minor example,” an expert remarked, pointing to a limited area of the extensive pattern of forest clearance mapped in the report. “Consider this expanded to 140,000 hectares.”

The mercury residues build up in fish and are transferred to the populations who consume them, leading to health and cognitive issues such as congenital disorders and learning difficulties.

An ongoing investigation of riverside communities in Peru’s far north of Loreto found the average concentration of mercury was nearly four times the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Analysis found that hundreds of waterways have been impacted, with nearly a thousand dredging machines spotted in Loreto since recent years – among them two hundred seventy-five this year alone on the Nanay River, a branch of the Amazon that is the vital source of natural habitats and dozens of Indigenous communities.

“They are poisoning our rivers – it’s the water that we consume,” said a spokesperson of several riverside communities in Loreto.

Residents began preventing extractors from moving along the River Tigre in the region recently, leading to armed clashes with militant groups. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are unsupported. Government authorities is absent,” he stated with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in southern Peru but new hotspots are appearing farther north in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

They are small but once mining is established it could grow rapidly, a researcher noted, adding that the study was a insight into what was happening across the broader Amazon region.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to look in this detail at a nation but I think in neighboring countries we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he added.

Research showed additional mining equipment appearing on Peru’s forest borders with Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, international armed factions are increasingly venturing into Peruvian territory into unregulated forest areas where government officials are taking minimal action to stop them, according to a criminologist.

Criminal networks, including groups from neighboring countries, are increasingly active across the border.

“Global criminal syndicates trafficking cocaine and laundering profits through unlawful extraction – amid record values providing hefty returns – are combined with a administration that has not been a serious obstacle against criminal enterprises,” the analyst stated.

An intergovernmental group of South American countries told Peru to get serious about unlawful extraction or it could face economic sanctions.

But a researcher commented: “Gold is just so profitable right now. I don’t see any signs of prices going down, so it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better.”