PERU, SOUTH AMERICA

Over the past 20 years, the Peruvian Amazon has been one of the most heavily affected areas of deforestation in the world. Around 3.12 million hectares of rainforest were lost between 2001 and 2009, with around 66 per cent of deforestation caused by illegal logging. But one region of Peru, called Madre de Dios, has seen vast losses of the forest thanks to illegal gold mining. Between 2001 and 2020, the Madre de Dios region lost around 672,000 acres of tree cover.

Gold mining in this region is highly destructive, clearing thousands of acres of trees and poisoning the land with mercury