Peru’s Dirty Gold
The Amazon rainforest is home to 10 percent of the world’s known species, and its ancient trees remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere. Its pristine forests, however, are increasingly under threat.
The soil underneath some of the rainforests is laced with gold, and each year, thousands of kilometres of the Amazon rainforest are devastated by illegal gold mining.
In Peru, where the rainforest covers about 60 percent of the country, illegal mining operations threaten local communities and turn swathes of rainforest into barren waste sites.
So what are the consequences of illegal mining for local communities and the ecosystem? What can be done to stop the destruction of the rainforest? And what happens to the dirty gold once it leaves Peru?
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