The Peruvian national protected areas system, known as SINANPE, is critically important to Amazon conservation efforts in the country. There are currently 46 protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon under national or regional administration*. In total, these areas cover 19.5 million hectares and include a wide variety of designations, including areas of indirect use (those with […]
Mining News Watch #17 covers the time period June 10- July 30, 2015 Top Stories On July 13th, the Peruvian police carried out a major raid in the La Pampa mining zone (Madre de Dios), the first major government operation against illegal mining in eight months. Following the raid, the regional President of Madre de Dios, Luis Otsuka, complained […]
Here, in MAAP #10, we show the results of a deforestation analysis of two sectors of Bahuaja Sonene National Park and its surrounding buffer zone. The Park, which covers an area of more than 1.6 million hectares in the regions of Puno and Madre de Dios in the southern Peruvian Amazon, is an area of high biological diversity. […]
Recall that in Image #2 we documented the rapid clearing of 2,126 hectares of primary forest between May 2013 and August 2014 for a new cacao project outside of the town of Tamshiyacu in the northern Peruvian Amazon (Department of Loreto). However, the company that carried out the forest clearing (United Cacao, through its wholly-owned subsidiary in […]
Recall that in Image of the Week #7 we documented the increasing threats (illegal coca, logging, and mining) to the Sierra del Divisor Reserved Zone. We just obtained brand new, high-resolution imagery showing new deforestation deep within this protected area during the month of June. Here, Image of the Week #8, presents new maps of […]
Mining News Watch #16 covers the time period March 17- June 10, 2015 Top Stories The Peruvian government announced in May that new complementary regulations for the formalization process will be released in August. To date, only 16 permits have been issued for formalized mining, affecting just 631 of the 58,835 miners that started the process […]
As the Peruvian Government decides whether the Sierra del Divisor Reserved Zone should become a National Park, here in Image of the Week #7 we offer this new analysis of the current deforestation patterns of the area. A Reserved Zone classification, which was applied to Sierra del Divisor in 2006, is a temporary measure to […]
Recall that in Image of the Week #1 and Image of the Week #5 we documented how gold mining deforestation continues to expand within the Department of Madre de Dios, Peru (in the areas known as La Pampa and Upper Malinowski, respectively). Here, Image of the Week #6 documents how expanding deforestation from the mining zone […]
Recall that in Image of the Week #1 we documented how gold mining deforestation continues to expand within the Department of Madre de Dios (Peru) in an area known as La Pampa (1,700 hectares of new deforestation between 2013 and 2015). Here, Image of the Week #5 examines the area immediately to the west of La […]
Image of the Week #4 shows the expansion of two large-scale oil palm projects near the town of Nueva Requena in the central Peruvian Amazon (Department of Ucayali). These projects began in late 2011 and, as of April 2015, now cover nearly 12,200 hectares (ha). Our analysis reveals that, of this total area, 9,400 ha […]
