BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Illegal gold mining is pushing into new stretches of Peru’s Amazon, spreading along isolated rivers and into Indigenous lands. Specialists warn that the growing activity is fueling an environmental and public health emergency that may leave lasting, irreversible scars.

This surge represents a new chapter for one of the rainforest’s most damaging industries. Operations that were once concentrated in well-known areas are now penetrating regions that had remained largely untouched, according to environmental advocates, researchers and Indigenous representatives.

The advance is driving faster deforestation, polluting waterways with mercury and exposing remote populations to violence and organized criminal groups, even as authorities insist they are intensifying enforcement efforts.

Illegal mining reaches ‘every region of Peru’

Images of forest destruction in Madre de Dios have long symbolized Peru’s illegal gold rush, but the problem is no longer confined to the south.

Mining activity, once heavily centered in Madre de Dios, is now expanding northward into areas such as Loreto and Ucayali.

Peru’s high commissioner for combating illegal mining, Rodolfo García Esquerre, acknowledged the scope of the issue in a recent television interview.

“Unfortunately, illegal mining exists in all regions of Peru,” he said on the state news channel.

Illegal operators clear vast stretches of forest with bulldozers, gouge pits into floodplains and deploy floating dredges that vacuum up river sediment in search of gold. What remains are stagnant ponds contaminated with mercury, destabilized riverbanks and a growing network of camps and access roads that cut deep into intact forest.

Environmental attorney César Ipenza said the spread has accelerated alongside soaring gold prices. In 2026, gold has hovered around $2,000 an ounce — close to record highs and roughly twice its value a decade ago.

“Illegal mining has grown significantly,” Ipenza said, noting emerging operations in Huanuco, Pasco, Loreto and near the Ecuadorian border, where elevated prices now make remote ventures profitable.

Julia Urrunaga, who directs the Peru program for the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, said field observations this year show illegal mining appearing in new zones, especially along river systems.

Rivers cloud and forests disappear

Conservationists report that environmental damage becomes visible soon after miners arrive.

“The transformation is rapid,” said Luis Fernández, a research professor and senior fellow at Wake Forest University’s Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability. “Within weeks or months of heavy machinery arriving, you can see sediment clouds spreading through rivers.”

At the Panguana Biological Station in Peru’s central Amazon — a private conservation area safeguarding one of the region’s richest ecosystems — the consequences are already evident in 2026. According to administrator Fernando Malatesta, the station has found itself on the front lines of the mining boom.

“Where there were once untouched forests, the rivers now run cloudy,” he said. “The water used to be crystal clear, but that’s no longer the case.”

Excavators and road construction have penetrated previously undisturbed woodland. Malatesta described visiting a nearby site recently stripped by dozens of machines. “It was unrecognizable,” he said.

Miners typically arrive via rivers with dredging platforms or overland with heavy equipment, quickly clearing vegetation and reshaping waterways.

Threats, violence and retreat from the forest

At Panguana, escalating threats in 2025 and early 2026 forced Malatesta and his colleagues to abandon the station.

“They began threatening us. Some were carrying machetes,” he recalled, describing tense encounters with miners and local residents.

Experts say the violence reflects the increasing presence of organized crime.

“Transnational criminal organizations are playing a larger role each day,” Ipenza said.

Urrunaga added that illegal gold has become a significant revenue stream for criminal networks.

“It is deeply intertwined with other organized crime activities in the country,” she said, noting links to powerful political interests.

Efforts to curb the activity

In late 2023, the Peruvian government established a high-level, multiagency commission to confront illegal mining and oversee the formalization of small-scale operators.

Authorities report ongoing enforcement actions. Recent raids have led to the confiscation and destruction of machinery valued at more than 60 million soles (about $16 million) tied to unlawful mining.

However, environmental defenders argue that on-the-ground enforcement remains insufficient.

Government officials did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment, and García Esquerre declined further statements.

Indigenous communities in the crossfire

Indigenous leaders say the expansion is affecting communities throughout the Amazon basin.

“We are hearing about this in many other parts of the Amazon. It is spreading through Loreto and Ucayali,” said Julio Cusurichi, an Indigenous leader from Madre de Dios. He described how outside miners rapidly enter territories, clearing forests and polluting rivers.

“There is fear,” Cusurichi said, noting that more than 30 Indigenous leaders have been killed in recent years while defending their lands.

Malatesta said that in some areas, economic hardship has led Indigenous communities to participate in mining, while others continue to resist.

“Some are backing illegal mining and selling land, believing they are striking a great deal,” he said, warning that the financial gains are short-lived. “The money doesn’t last.”

Mercury contamination and mounting health risks

Urrunaga emphasized that ecological destruction is inseparable from serious health threats.

“The damage caused by gold mining is devastating not only for the environment but also for human health,” she said, explaining that mercury used to extract gold contaminates rivers and enters the food and water consumed by Indigenous communities, where fish is a dietary staple.

“Mercury becomes a vehicle for poison,” Fernández said, describing how the metal accumulates in the food chain and harms children’s neurological development.

Claudia Vega, a scientist and mercury program coordinator at the Amazon Center for Scientific Innovation, warned that mining’s expansion into fish-dependent communities could have grave consequences.

“Amazonian populations are already vulnerable. Fish is part of their daily diet,” she said. “Introducing mining into those areas increases the danger.”

She cautioned that contamination could reach levels comparable to the Minamata disaster in Japan, where mercury exposure led to widespread neurological damage.

“We could see deformities, vision loss and hearing loss,” she said.

A potential tipping point for the rainforest

Scientists warn that continued expansion of illegal mining may trigger lasting transformations.

“We may witness the conversion of river corridors, floodplains and forests,” Fernández said.

Urrunaga argued that international gold buyers must accept responsibility for the environmental destruction and human suffering linked to their purchases.

With global demand and prices remaining high, researchers caution that ongoing expansion could push sections of the Amazon toward an ecological tipping point, where vast rainforest areas degrade into savanna-like landscapes.

“Every fallen tree, every polluted river and every lost species is a reminder that we are losing something irreplaceable,” Malatesta said.