Illegal gold mining continues to grow exponentially across the Amazon Basin, crossing the borders of the nine countries it encompasses, and causing far-reaching environmental and social impacts everywhere it reaches.  “Gold mining has become a transnational activity that affects the Amazon at scale,” said Andrés Santana, Senior Manager for Combating Illegal Deforestation at Amazon Conservation. […]

Drawing on 24 years of satellite data, the analysis maps gold-mining deforestation across the country and shows recent incursions into protected areas. A new analysis by Amazon Conservation Association’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP), combining over two decades’ worth of satellite data with recent AI monitoring results from Amazon Mining Watch, reveals that […]

New platform reveals the expansion of mining fronts across protected areas and Indigenous territories as gold prices soar, but partnerships put science to work for enforcement and accountability.  Belém, Brazil, November 2025 — Amazon Mining Watch confirms widespread gold mining-related deforestation impacting 222 protected areas and Indigenous territories across all nine Amazonian countries, marking the […]

The new Policy Tracker and Scoreboard reveal how Amazonian countries regulate mercury and gold mining, fostering accountability and better environmental governance. From November 3 to 7, 2025, the 6th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury took place in Geneva, Switzerland,. The Minamata Convention is a global treaty designed […]

A 2025 Status Report by Amazon Conservation’s sister organization, Conservación Amazónica–ACCA, warns that illicit activity is consolidating along Peru’s borders with Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia, while also expanding into the interior of Peru from Madre de Dios to Cajamarca and Pasco. Lima, August 25, 2025 – Illegal gold mining is emerging as one of the […]

As gold prices continue to increase, small-scale gold mining activity continues to be one of the major deforestation drivers across the Amazon, often targeting remote areas and impacting carbon-rich primary forests. These mining activities are presumed to be illegal based on their location in conservation areas (such as protected areas and Indigenous territories) and outside […]

Amazon Conservation has an extensive history of tracking illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon via our real-time satellite monitoring program, Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP). Over the years, we have continuously expanded our scope across all 9 countries of the Amazon, partnering with numerous local NGOs and civil society organizations who often […]

Last month, we were thrilled to share that we’ll be taking part in one of the world’s most critical conservation summits— the CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia. As global biodiversity faces unprecedented threats, this event offers a vital platform for shaping solutions to help protect ecosystems and species across the planet.  As we dive into […]

Our newest MAAP report, MAAP #196, shows the results of the socio-environmental impacts caused by illegal mining using a unique tool, the “Illegal Gold Mining Impact Calculator” developed by Conservation Strategy Fund – CSF. Illegal gold mining has generated massive deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon (MAAP #208), and has contaminated the area’s major rivers, tributaries, and secondary […]