Chuck Darwin‘This river is doomed’:
Peru’s gold rush threatens waterways and the people who depend on them | Global development
Loreto used to be considered a peaceful region in Peru, but not any more.
José Manuyama Ahuite was born at the confluence of the Ucayali and Tapiche rivers in Requena, 100 miles (160km) south of Iquitos, a port city and the gateway to the Indigenous peoples of the northern Amazon.
He moved to the town in 2004, before the miners brought pollution to the Nanay River and destruction to surrounding forests.
“The river forms part of our spirit and culture. If the river dies, so does our human dignity,” he says.
“Now this river is doomed.
The colour of the water is changing, and the same devastation in other mining areas is beginning to be reproduced here in the Nanay.”
As president of the Water Defence Committee in Iquitos, created to address threats to the region’s rivers, he says their goal is to end pollution in the Nanay.
“Many leaders and neighbours who live in the basin live threatened and afraid in their own communities,” Manuyama says. “We hope we don’t go through the same thing.”
In recent years, illegal mining has expanded rapidly throughout Peru’s Loreto region as miners have become emboldened by the absence of authorities and rising gold prices.
The activity has affected the quality of water, bringing the threat of pollution and disease to more than 170,000 Indigenous inhabitants across the Peruvian Amazon.
Dredgers have been found in several rivers across the region, including the Marañón, Napo, Putumayo and Nanay rivers, says Abel Chiroque Becerra, head of Loreto’s ombudsman’s office.
The current situation has been exacerbated by a lack of opportunities for residents and neglect by the Peruvian state, he says.
Protected areas and Indigenous reserves have been heavily affected.
“It is a great concern because of the pressure on our rivers,” says one Kichwa Indigenous leader who wishes to remain anonymous. “As they continue to pollute the rivers, they bring diseases because people consume the fish.”
A recent report from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project ( #MAAP ) has exposed the scale and impact of illegal gold mining in Peru’s Loreto region.
More than 11 large rivers are affected by illegal mining, it found, covering three protected natural areas and 31 Indigenous territories.
Communities have learned to employ technology to identify threats and report environmental crimes in collaboration with #Orpio, the organisation of Indigenous people of Peru’s eastern Amazon, an ecological monitoring programme.
“We monitor not only the rivers but also illegal logging, burning, invasions and drug trafficking,” the Kichwa leader says. “We see where people are causing an impact on communities, such as the presence of mining, and we try to control it.”
But those fighting the criminals face considerable danger.
The forest is already mortally wounded. Illegal mining will destroy the fragile ecosystem, which is serious for the world
José Manuyama Ahuite, river defender
The Kichwa leader is one of many environmental defenders to have faced intimidation and threats from illegal miners while patrolling the region.
“When we filed complaints, I received threats from the miners because they could no longer work freely or easily enter communities,” they say. “They told me I had to withdraw the complaints from the prosecutor’s office.
“Other colleagues have been threatened by weapons, and that presented a real fear for me and my family.”
The Loreto region, which covers almost a third of Peru’s territory and borders Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil, is considered one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions.
It accounts for only 5% of the Amazon basin by area but harbours up to 40% of its terrestrial vertebrate species and has the largest peat deposits in the basin.
Manuyama says: “The mining has had a devastating impact on our environment. The forest is already depredated and mortally wounded. Illegal mining will destroy the Amazon’s fragile ecosystem, which is serious for the world.”
The mining in the region is artisanal, an intensive operation that studies show worsens water quality, disrupts the natural flow of water, and pollutes rivers and streams with high concentrations of mercury. Environmentalists and biologists fear this activity will damage aquatic ecosystems and threaten the food security of Indigenous communities who depend on these rivers.
Andrea Buitrago, director of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development ( #FCDS ) in Peru, says the toxic metal leaches into the Amazon’s watercourses, “poisoning Indigenous communities in the region and local populations that consume the contaminated fish”.
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