A surge in the price of gold has led to increased deforestation of the Amazon and other South American forests, according to a new study of mining impacts.
With the rewards now higher than the risks, small-scale garimpeiros — artisanal miners — are flocking into protected areas to extract gold from low-grade seams under the tropical forest that were previously unprofitable, research published on Wednesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters found.
Analyzing satellite data, University of Puerto Rico researchers found that an area of 1,680km2 was cleared between 2001 and 2013, during which time the price of gold rose more than fivefold.
The rate of destruction doubled in the second half of that period, which corresponded with a spike in gold prices as a result of financial instability — which prompts investors to use gold as a safe haven — and rising demand for jewelry in China and India.
TOXIC COCKTAIL
While the scale of deforestation is far lower than that caused by agriculture, livestock and illegal logging, the authors say that goldmining has worse side-effects, because miners use cyanide, mercury and arsenic, which contaminate water sources over a wider area and slow the regrowth of vegetation.
The paper said that 90 percent of the deforestation occurred in four areas: the Southwest Amazon in Peru, the Tapajos-Xingu river basin in Brazil, the Guianan moist forest ecoregion across northeastern South America, and the Magdalena Valley-Uraba region in Colombia.
Much of the destruction occurred in areas under environmental protection, most notably near Itaituba in the Tapajos-Xingu basin, which the authors said is the most important gold producing region of Brazil. About 200,000 people are thought to be employed in small-scale mining in the Brazilian Amazon.
Another protected area that has experienced a rapid expansion in mining is Peru’s Bahuaja-Sonene National Park.
PRICE OF PERIL
The price of gold is down from its peak in 2011, but still about double the average of the last 30 years, prompting the researchers to predict greater environmental threats.
“As the global demand for gold continues to increase, gold mining activities will likely continue to increase in the tropical forests of South Africa,” they said.
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