Peru: Gold mine operating without license destroys primary forest in protected area

[Judi Lynn]

by Yvette Sierra Praeli on 17 October 2019 | Translated by Sarah Engel

When inspectors from Peru’s Technical Administration for Forestry and Wildlife (ATFFS) in Puerto Inca Province received a complaint about the presence of miners in the buffer zone around the El Sira Communal Reserve, they sent up a drone that captured images of a forest devastated by gold mining. The images revealed piles of dirt and pools of green water.

Jorge Valdivia Ramírez, the administrator of the ATFFS office in Puerto Inca, told Mongabay Latam that the inspection was done because residents from Puerto Inca were concerned about the potentially harmful effects of gold mining in the area. “There is evidence that primary forests and water resources have been affected,” Valdivia said.

A report by Puerto Inca ATFFS found that gold mining in the area is destroying primary forests and has affected the basins of the Pintuyacu and Quimpichari rivers. Additionally, the mining operations overlap with land owned by the Tsirotzire indigenous community.

“Large areas of land are being preyed upon, and the effects of pollution are already being seen in the Pintuyacu River,” says Sodi Claudio Tolentino, a Puerto Inca resident who has protested mining activities in the community since 2012. “They extract gold with heavy machinery and destroy everything in their path.”

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/peru-gold-mine-operating-without-license-destroys-primary-forest-in-protected-area/

[pansypoo53219]

1. fucking greedy bastards.