Ashley Bond Monday November 21 2016

The impacts of Mining in Madre de Dios

The Amazon rainforest spanning at an astounding 5.5 million square miles is irrefutably, the lungs of the Earth. Home to 10% of the world's known species, the Amazon Rainforest has an incredibly rich ecosystem and is without a doubt one the most biodiverse places on earth. Despite the immaculate beauty and the urgency to protect the Amazon, there is a vast majority of issues that threaten the very existence of the rainforest and all species in it. A threat in particular that has already resulted in catastrophic damage to the environment and to communities is mining; a short term activity with long term effects. A majority of gold mining takes place in The Madre de Dios region. Mining in this region is illegal and has unfortunately led to the deforestation of over 370,000 acres of land.

Photo credit: New York Times / Tomas MunitaThe image shows deforestation across an area of 712 acres in the Tambopata reserve of Madre de Dios state, which has been under a health emergency since May due to mercury contamination.

The image above shows substantial deforestation as a direct result of mining in the Madre de Dios region. The large area shown in the photograph are gold mine deposits filled with mercury. Mercury is one of the most toxic

substances exposed to mankind and plays an extremely crucial role in gold mining. Mercury is essential simply because of its chemical properties enabling it to bind to gold for easier retrieval for miners. A surprisingly copious amount of mercury is used in gold extraction, for every ounce of gold; a miner must add an equal amount of mercury. In March 2013 there was a study published on the food sold in markets in Puerto Maldonado which is the capital city of Madre de Dios. The study found that 60% of the species sold in these markets exceeded EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) limits for consumption of fish due to the amount of mercury found in them. The affects of mercury on human beings are not pleasant whatsoever and can range from loss of vision, neuromuscular changes, emotional changes, memory loss and so much more. As a result of the gold rush, 78% of residents in the capital of Madre de Dios are exposed to this toxic chemical every single day of their lives and quite frankly it is a violation of human rights.

Photo credit: Cody Hopkins Miners panning mercury

As far as working conditions go in the gold mining industry, they are very inequitable. In Madre de Dios, the miners extract over 100,000 dollars worth of gold on a daily basis. Miners typically work seven days a week for roughly ten hours a day and make only 20 dollars a day or less.

Photo credit: NASA / UNEP, CATHALAC"Satellite images provided by NASA show the high landscape change due to artisanal mining activities between 2003 and

2011 on the region of Madre de Dios.

Another one of the negative environmental impacts of mining is water pollution. The Amazon River at 4,000 miles is the world's second largest river and is home to 3,000 known species of fish. As a result of mining, The Amazon River is becoming massively contaminated with chemicals such as mercury, arsenic, cyanide, sulfuric acid, etc. The people living near the Amazon River rely on it for food, water and many other basic necessities, so it affects the community greatly. Aquatic organisms also suffer greatly from the contamination of the river putting an end to a healthy river system. Aquatic biodiversity is affected in many different ways ranging from poisoning to the alteration of PH levels to wells and springs drying up due to the immense volume of water required for mining activities. As a result, you get a decimated fish population

which in return completely jeopardizes the ecosystem.

Map indicating location of the Amazon River

Roughly 70% of land animals and plants here on Earth live in forests and profoundly rely on what the forest has to offer them such as food, shelter, breeding habitat, regulated temperature and so much more. Yet these animals and plants face the threat of deforestation as a result of mining and they sadly just cannot survive the deforestation that continuously destroys their homes. As of May 2011 according to the Ministry of Environment, illegal mining in the Madre de Dios region has already destroyed more than 50 thousand hectares of the rainforest. This figure of destruction is the equivalent to 71,000 football fields so you can imagine what the numbers are today. Throughout the course of destruction, many animals die and the ones that survive must find a new habitat, impelling them to migrate between habitat fragments. In doing so, animals experience vulnerability to predators on the hunt, natural disasters, poachers, storms, sunlight, dehydration, separation from the pack, and much more.

Ashley Bond Monday November 21 2016

The impacts of Mining in Madre de Dios

Photo credit: Sam Orlando

An orangutan burnt as a result of deforestation.

Mining negatively affects air quality quite significantly which is rather ironic in this case seeing as the Amazon is one of the world's largest storage for CO2. Each year, approximately 35 billion tons of CO2 is released into our atmosphere as a result of human activity. Studies suggest that in a typical year, the Amazon rainforest stores roughly 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Miners destroy the forest in order to create gold mine deposits and in return release CO2 back into the air and decrease the amount of storage that we have for CO2. In order to create gold mine deposits, heavy machinery and large vehicles are required; these like any other combustion engine powered vehicle produce greenhouse gasses and harmful emissions on quite a large scale. Such emissions into our atmosphere will only accelerate climate change and affect our health.

Photo credit: International News 11Forest fire in the Amazon Rainforest releasing harmful chemicals including CO2 back into our atmosphere

All in all, mining in the Amazon rainforest has catastrophic consequences that negatively affect plants, trees, animals, human beings, and our entire planet as a whole; Our very existence may be on the verge of extinction a lot sooner than anticipated. If we don't put an end to the gold rush in Madre de Dios, toxic chemicals will continue to affect the food we eat and the water we drink. Animals will suffer and their homes will be destroyed resulting in the extinction of the many species that we know and love today, the air we breathe in will no longer be safe and the world as we know it will forever be altered.

~

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."- Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation

Photo credit: Rainforest ExpeditionsThe diversity of animals in the Amazon Rainforest

Works Cited

Coelho, M. E. (2010, November 8). Hijos de Madre de Dios. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from O Eco Amazonia: ‐ ‐http://oecoamazonia.com

Daley, S. (2016, July 26). Peru Scrambles to Drive Out Illegal Gold Mining and Save Precious Land. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/world/americas/peru-illegal-gold-mining-latin-america.html?_r=2

Dupont, S. (Director). (2016). River of Gold [Motion Picture].

Fernandez, L. (2013, March). Mercury in Madre de Dios. Retrieved November 3, 2016, from Carnegie Amazon Mercury Ecosystem Project (CAMEP): http://dge.stanford.edu/research/CAMEP/CAMEP%20Research%20Brief%20-%20Puerto%20Maldonado%20English%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Fraser, B. (2009). Peruvian gold rush threatens health and the environment. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from Environmental Science and Technology perspective : http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es902347z

Gardner, E. (2012, June). Peru Battles the Golden Curse of Madre de Dios. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from Nature International weekly journal of Science: http://www.nature.com/news/peru-battles-the-golden-curse-of-madre-de-dios-1.10857

ICTMN Staff. (2011, February 27). Amazon Gold Rush Laying Waste to Peruvian Rainforest’s Madre de Dios. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from Indian Country Today Media Network: .com/2011/02/27/amazon-gold-rush-laying-waste-peruvian-rainforests-madre-de-dios-20021

Mercury: Time to Act. (2013). Retrieved from ” United Nations Environment Programme: http://www.unep.org/PDF/PressReleases/Mercury_TimeToAct.pdf

NASA. (2012). Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon . Retrieved November 2, 2016, from Visible Earth (NASA) : http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=78629

Peru Ministerio del Ambiente. (2011, April ). Mineria Madre de Dios. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from Republica del Peru - Ministerio del Ambiente: http://cdam.minam.gob.pe/novedades/mineriamadrededios.pdf

Post, C. (2016, May 23). Mercury from illegal mining prompts health emergency in Peru. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from Peru Reports: http://perureports.com/2016/05/23/mercury-contamination-prompts-health-emergency-peru-jungle-state/

Risen, C. (2011, March). “A Mega Dam Dilemma in the Amazon”‐ . Retrieved November 2, 2016, from Smithsonian Magazine.

Swenson, J. (2011). Gold mining in the peruvian Amazon. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from Nicholas School of the Enivironment, Duke University : http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0018875

Yard, E. E. (2012). Mercury exposure among artisanal gold miners in Madre de Dios. Retrieved from The National Center for Biotechnology Information: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_industryweapons328.htm