- Alluvial gold mining threatens protected conservation and indigenous lands in the tropical Amazon, particularly in Southeastern Peru.
- Federal Military Intervention Actions by the Peruvian government attempted to minimize these activities and move miners to sanctioned mining zones.
- Analyses using remote sensing data can help assess the results of this major policy action.
- NASA’s archival and ongoing data are essential for these conservation policy analyses.
- Peru’s federal policy actions reduced mining in protected areas, shifted mining into buffer unprotected zones, but there is evidence of re-mining activity as enforcement waned.
How is land cover/use changed?
Alluvial gold mining has led to the deforestation of over 100,000 ha of tropical forest in Southeastern Peru [1] and a major reduction in water quality [2]. Peru’s Operation Mercury intervention attempted to eliminate illegal mining operations. Before the intervention, the extent of mining pond was increasing by 33- 90%/year and after they decreased by 4- 5%/year with 70-90% abandonment. New mining activity accelerated in nearby legal mining zones, however, with deforestation increasing by +3-5km2 per year [3].
Figure 1: Mining pond area and color for enforcement areas (a,b,c,d) and legal zones (e,f). Pond area decreased and water quality improved (from turbid yellow to green) following intervention in target areas (Dethier et al. 2023).
Why is this Important?
Formalization efforts for Peru’s alluvial mining sector have been ineffective and military-based conservation interventions in Peru and elsewhere have varied in effectiveness [4]. This analysis suggests that widespread intervention can address urgent conservation issues, in this case, the attenuation of deforestation in buffer zones, so long as sustained efforts are made [3].
How satellite data are being used to inform decision making and Earth Action?
Multispectral remote sensing data provide pre- and post- ntervention deforestation and mining pond characteristic data. Analyses using these data generate a clear picture of the effectiveness of military-based conservation policy. Given the rise of alluvial mining in tropical systems worldwide [5], similar efforts can help governments worldwide to address this ongoing crisis.
[1] Espejo et al. (2018) Rem. Sens., 10(12), 1903. [2] Dethier et al.
(2019) PNAS, 116(48), 23936-23941. [3] Dethier et al. (2023) Cons.
Lett., e12978. [4] Hilson and Maconachie (2020) L. Use. Policy,
96, 104706. [5] Dethier et al. (2023) Nature, 620(7975), 787-793.
Project Investigator: David Lutz, Dartmouth College, NH, USA; Email: David.a.lutz@dartmouth.edu
The opinions expressed are solely the PI's and do not reflect NASA's or the US Government's views.