Gold Mining In The Peruvian Amazonia

Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: Global Prices, Deforestation, and Mercury Imports
Jennifer J. Swenson1*, Catherine E. Carter1¤, Jean-Christophe Domec1,2, Cesar I. Delgado3
´nieurs des Travaux Agricoles de 1 Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America, 2 Ecole Nationale des Inge ´ ´ments Mine ´ ´raux, Gradignan, France, 3Environmental Affairs Office, CESEL S.A, San Isidro, Lima, Peru Bordeaux, Unite Mixte de Recherche Transfert et Cycle des Ele

Abstract
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 evidenceis 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 ininternational 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 (R2 = 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 experiencingsimilar 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.
Citation: Swenson JJ, Carter CE, Domec J-C, Delgado CI (2011) Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: Global Prices, Deforestation, and Mercury Imports. PLoS ONE 6(4):e18875. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018875 Editor: Guy J-P. Schumann, University of Bristol, United Kingdom Received November 14, 2010; Accepted March 22, 2011; Published April 19, 2011 Copyright: ß 2011 Swenson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: J. Swenson and J.C. Domec are supported by Duke University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: jswenson@duke.edu ¤ Current address: Tetra Tech, Inc., ResearchTriangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America

Introduction
World demand for natural resources is increasingly driving local resource extraction and land use [1]. As the global economy becomes more tightly connected, it is increasingly difficult for developing countries to harness the lucrative forces of global demand in the interest of social and environmental sustainability [2]. As aresult, developing countries become saddled with an unequal environmental burden relative to developed countries that are importing the raw materials [3]. A current example of a global commodity having such an effect in developing countries is gold. Over the last decade, the price of gold has increased 360% with a constant rate of increase of , 18% per year. The price continues to set new...