Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. W...

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Autores principales:	Jennifer J Swenson, Catherine E Carter, Jean-Christophe Domec, Cesar I Delgado
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6fe2e02471914b57b876418b89e40fe2
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6fe2e02471914b57b876418b89e40fe22021-11-18T06:55:36ZGold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0018875https://doaj.org/article/6fe2e02471914b57b876418b89e40fe22011-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21526143/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (∼18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006-2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R(2) = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003-2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (∼500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.Jennifer J SwensonCatherine E CarterJean-Christophe DomecCesar I DelgadoPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 4, p e18875 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jennifer J Swenson Catherine E Carter Jean-Christophe Domec Cesar I Delgado Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
description	Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (∼18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006-2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R(2) = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003-2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (∼500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.
format	article
author	Jennifer J Swenson Catherine E Carter Jean-Christophe Domec Cesar I Delgado
author_facet	Jennifer J Swenson Catherine E Carter Jean-Christophe Domec Cesar I Delgado
author_sort	Jennifer J Swenson
title	Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
title_short	Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
title_full	Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
title_fullStr	Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
title_full_unstemmed	Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
title_sort	gold mining in the peruvian amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/6fe2e02471914b57b876418b89e40fe2
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Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.

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