Document

The impact of gold mining on the native communities, and forests of the department of Madre de Dios (Peru)

by Carlos Junquera Rubio

Retired Professor, Department of Prehistory and Ethnology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed
2023.2(2); https://doi.org/10.58396/gges020201
Received: 20 Dec 2023 / Accepted:05 Jan 2024 / Published: 15 Jan 2024

Journal Browser

Announcements

more >

Calling for papers-GGES

2023-12-21

Abstract

Gold was known in Peru before the arrival of the Spanish. European mining in the 16th century operated on the coast, and in the Andes, but not in the tropical jungle. The current Peruvian department of Madre de Dios was rich in rubber, and the search for this wealth first meant a great negative impact conducted by strangers, but they created social problems, ethnocides, and destruction in the tropical forest. In 1973 gold appeared on the river beaches, in the Laberinto region. Gold is always an attraction, and the strange population comes soon with the hope of becoming rich, but this is not easy. In this large Peruvian region, gold mining is conducted with traditional means that involve washing the sand with water, and the gold is separated with mercury. The high price of gold has implied informal, and extremely negative development for people, and tropical landscapes. Peruvian authorities have not been able to control the extraction areas but have tolerated illegal activities. The negative impact on the environment devastates, according to calculations, about 150,000 hectares each year, and about 50,000 kilograms of mercury are used to amalgamate the gold.

Keywords:

Economy, legal and informal mining, mercury, destroyed tropical forest

References

[1] C. Junquera Rubio. The shamanic role in the Madre de Dios area (Perú) (in Spanish), Antisuyo, vol. I, 57-69, 1978a;

[2] C. Junquera Rubio. The Amarakaeris versus Western culture (in Spanish), Antisuyo vol. I, 77-92, 1978b;

[3] C. Junquera Rubio. Peruvian multiculturalism. The case of the Harakmbet language (in Spanish), Cahiers de l’Institut Linguistique de Louvain, vol. 16 (2-4), 171-198, 1990. doi: 10.2143/CILL. 16.2.2016719;

[4] C. Junquera Rubio. Social aspects of a primitive community: the Harakmbet Indians of the Peruvian Amazon (in Spanish). Barcelona: Mitre, 1991a;

[5] C. Junquera Rubio. Possibilities of survival of the Esse Ejja language under the action of two different policies, the Bolivian, and the Peruvian (in Spanish), Cahiers de l’Institut Linguistique de Louvain, vol. 17(4), 49-75, 1991b. doi: 10.2143/CILL. 17.4.2016687;

[6] C. Junquera Rubio. Indians and survival in the Amazon (in Spanish). Salamanca: Amarú, 1995;

[7] C. Junquera Rubio. Threatened minorities in a global world. Territory, language, and culture in the Amazon (in Spanish). Pamplona: Eunate, 2004;

[8] C. Junquera Rubio. Fray José Pio Aza, O. P. Missionary, geographer, philologist, historian, ethnologist, and anthropologist in the Amazon (in Spanish). Pamplona: Eunate, 2005;

[9] C. Junquera Rubio. Cachuelas of Blood and Death in the Amazon (in Spanish). Madrid: Lacre, 2022.

[10] J. P. Aza. Notes for the history of the Madre de Dios (in Spanish). Lima: Imprenta Gil, 1928;

[11] Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI). Mother of God. Final results (in Spanish). Lima: Gobierno de Perú, 2018.

[12] M. Vargas Llosa. In praise of Reading, and fiction (in Spanish). Madrid: Alfaguara, 2010.

[13] G. Lohmann Villena. The mines of Huancavelica in the 16th and 17th centuries (in Spanish). Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos, 1949;

[14] G. Lohmann Villena. The mines of Huancavelica in the 16th and 17th centuries (in Spanish). Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, 1999.

[15] E. Moran. The human ecology of the peoples of the Amazon (in Spanish). México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1993.

[16] C. Junquera Rubio. Bridges, roads, and land transportation as causes of negative environmental impacts in the Peruvian lowland jungle (in Spanish), M+A, Revista Electrónica de medioambiente, vol. 3, 53-75, 2007.

[17] J. Maco, R. Pezo, and J. Canepa. Effects of environmental pollution from oil activities (in Spanish). Iquitos: EDEC. 1985.

[18] R. Gómez García. Environmental pollution in the Peruvian Amazon (in Spanish). Iquitos: IIAP, 1995.

[19] Mining & Technology. The Five largest gold mines in operation in Peru. London: GlobalData, 2023.

[20] M. Rojas Hernández. Capital, exploitation, and social injustice in the 21st century (in Spanish). México: Itaca, 2020.

[21] H. Brandenburg. When Two Worlds Collide. New York: NTSC, 2016.

[22] R. Plant, and S. Hvalkof. Land Titling and Indigenous Peoples. Washington: Inter-American Development Bank, 2001.

[23] El Comercio (in Spanish), April 11, 2010, A8, and 9.

[24] J. Espin, and S. Perz. Environmental crimes in extractive activities: explanations for low enforcement effectiveness in the case of illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru. Ext. Ind. Soc. 8 (1), 331–339, 2021.

[25] M. M. Veiga, and O. Fadina. A review of the failed attempts to curb mercury use at artisanal gold mines and a proposed solution. Extr. Ind. Soc. 7, 1135–1146. doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.06.023, 3, 2020.

[26] Statista. Average price of gold from 1900 to 2023 (in Spanish). Madrid: Statista, 2023.

[27] T. Morante. Death in Kilates. Caretas (in Spanish), November 5, 2009.

[28] J. Duran. Rampage of God (in Spanish). Caretas, April 8, 2010.

[29] El Comercio (in Spanish). April 11, pages 8A, and 9, 2010.

[30] J. Cordero. The gold rush runs amok in Peru (in Spanish). El País, April 7, 2010.

[31] C. Villachica. Patented Inventions and their successful commercialization. Lima: Indecopi, 2014.

[32] F. Baca Tupayachi. Peasant economy and labor markets: the case of the Southeast (in Spanish). Cuzco: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, 1985.

[33] C. Junquera Rubio. Bridges, roads, and land transportation as causes of negative environmental impacts in the Peruvian lowland jungle (in Spanish), (in Spanish) M+A, revista electrónica de medioambiente, vol. 3, 53-75, 2007.

[34] Plant, R., and S. Hvalkof. Land Titling and Indigenous Peoples. Washington: Inter-American Development Bank, 2001.

[35] C. Junquera Rubio. What should we understand by democracy in the first quarter of the 21st century? (in Spanish), in A. Vázquez Atochero, and H. Arabi (coord.), Emerging democracies, and democracies in recession. Semiotics of political transformation (in Spanish). Madrid: Dykinson, 57-74, 2020.

[36] J. G. Nystrom. Report to the Supreme Government of Peru on the Expedition to the Interior of the Republic (in Spanish). Lima: Imprenta y Litografía de E. Prugue, 1868.

[37] V. Cenitagoya. Yesterday's Mashcos (in Spanish), Misiones Dominicanas de Perú, 139, 17-24, 1944.

[38] I. Garcilaso de la Vega. Royals’ Comments of the Incas (in Spanish). Madrid: Atlas, 1963.

[39] C. Markham. Travels in Peru, and India. London: Peter Blanchard, 1862.

[40] A. Raimondi. The Perú, I (in Spanish). Lima: Imprenta del Estado, 1874.

[41] J. Nystrom. Report to the Supreme Government of Peru on the Expedition to the Interior of the Republic (in Spanish). Lima: Imprenta y Litografía de E. Prugue, 1868.

[42] J. Cardús. The Franciscan missions among the infidels of Bolivia; descriptions of their condition in 1883, and 1884 (in Spanish). Barcelona: Librería La Inmaculada, 1886.

[43] J. Álvarez. Honor to God, and liberation to the Mashcos (in Spanish). Misiones Dominicanas del Perú, 184, 84-101, 1951.

[44] W. C. Farabee. Indians Tribes of Eastern Peru. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922.

[45] P. Fejos. The Colorado Region (in Spanish). Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Lima, vol. 58, 221-242, 1941.

[46] G. Holzmann. La Tribu Mashca (in Spanish), Misiones Dominicanas del Perú, 182, 1-4, 1951.

[47] R. Carneiro. Little-know of the Peruvian Montaña, Bulletin of the International Committee of Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research, vol. 5, 80-85, 1962.

[48] P. Lyon. Native South American. Boston: Brown Little, 1974.

[49] C. Junquera Rubio. Shamanism in the Amazon: magic, witchcraft, shamanism, and medical practices of the Harakmbet Indians (in Sapanish). Lima: Rio Verde, 2006.

[50] Organization of American States (OAS). On the Trail of Illicit Gold Proceeds: Strengthening the Fight against Illegal Mining Finances Peru’s Case. Washington: OEA, 2021.