Gold Mining is one of the major deforestation drivers across the Amazon. Although not typically at the scale of agricultural deforestation, gold mining has the potential to severely impact critical areas such as protected areas & indigenous territories. Relatedly, gold mining often targets remote areas, thus impacting largely intact and carbon-rich primary forests. Here, for […]
Gold mining is one of the major deforestation drivers across the Amazon, with well-known cases in Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. In a recent series of technical articles*, in collaboration with the Ecuadorian organization Foundation EcoCiencia, we have also shown that gold mining is escalating in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Here, we summarize the results from the series and […]
The Brazilian government recently launched a series of raids against illegal gold mining in Yanomami Indigenous Territory, located in the northern Brazilian Amazon (see inset of Base Map). These raids highlight the severe consequences brought by illegal mining activity, particularly deforestation, contamination, malnutrition, and disease. Here we present the results of a new machine learning […]
We continue with the second part in our series on soy deforestation in the Bolivian Amazon. In the first part, see MAAP #179, we documented the massive soy-driven deforestation of 904,518 hectares (2.2 million acres) between 2001 and 2021 in the Bolivian Amazon. During this time period, a large number of farming-based Mennonite colonies have […]
It is generally known that commodities such as oil palm, soy, and cattle are major tropical deforestation drivers, but concise estimates are often difficult. New satellite-based datasets are improving this situation. Notably, researchers recently published the first overview of soybean plantations for South America.1 Here, we use this data to estimate recent soy-driven deforestation in […]
We continue our series on the Venezuelan Amazon (see MAAP #155), with a special focus on the key protected area of Yapacana National Park. In recent reports, we showed that Yapacana is currently experiencing intense illegal mining activity with likely thousands of miners (see MAAP #156), including on top of the sacred Yapacana Tepui (see […]
Gold mining continues to be one of the main deforestation drivers in the southern Peruvian Amazon (Madre de Dios region). In a recent report (MAAP #154), we highlighted the key cases of illegal mining in this area. In an attempt to organize mining activities and promote a formalization process,* the Peruvian government has delimited a […]
Since 2017, the Mennonites have arrived in the Peruvian Amazon and created 5 new colonies. Here, we show that these colonies have caused the deforestation of more than 4,800 hectares (11,860 acres) of tropical forest, including 650 hectares (1,600 acres) in 2022. The Base Map shows the current situation regarding the Mennonites in Peru. Note […]
It is increasingly reported that the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, is rapidly approaching a tipping point. As repeatedly highlighted by the late Tom Lovejoy (see Acknowledgements), this tipping point is where parts of the rainforest will convert into drier ecosystems due to disrupted precipitation patterns and more intense dry seasons, both exacerbated by […]
In a series of previous reports, we have documented the extensive recent deforestation from new Mennonite colonies arriving in the Peruvian Amazon (see MAAP #149). However, despite the extensive evidence provided by satellite images, the Mennonites have repeatedly denied this deforestation (see References). Most recently, we detected that the Mennonites had resumed deforestation in the […]
