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 utilize this information to take legal action against illegal gold mining and other harmful deforestation activities.
To further support our efforts, Amazon Conservation was recently granted generous funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to improve our real-time monitoring of illegal gold mining across the Amazon basin and advance mechanisms for using this information to improve law enforcement responses. With this grant, we will work directly with local authorities and civil society organizations in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to improve our collective abilities to quickly detect gold mining and protect key conservation areas and Indigenous territories throughout the Amazon Basin.
Recent MAAP reports reveal that illegal gold mining activities continue to expand in these countries, negatively impacting thousands of acres of pristine forests, contaminating major waterways, and threatening the natural resources that many Indigenous communities depend on. Additionally, illegal mining also leads to large economic losses due to the direct impact on ecosystem services and other sustainable economic activities. Given the recent expansion of these mining activities, it is vital that we step up our efforts to help local authorities and civil society organizations on the ground to strengthen their capacity to mitigate the negative impacts of gold mining on both biodiversity and human health.
The Gordon and Betty Moore grant will allow us to achieve the following goals by 2026:
- A comprehensive information platform covering 100% of the Amazon will be established to enable stakeholders to access and utilize advanced detection, mapping, and visualization tools to improve the monitoring and analysis of both legal and illegal gold mining activities.
- Civil society partners will have improved technical skills, strategic capacities, and tools to effectively support government enforcement and policy actions against illegal mining.
- Civil society partners can prompt swift government action to curb and prevent illegal mining in the Amazon, enhancing monitoring and enforcement efforts while also strengthening the policy and legal framework surrounding gold mining.
- Amazon Conservation and its civil society partners lead targeted communication campaigns to share insights, analyses, and outcomes from project interventions. By collaborating with key media outlets and stakeholders, they ensure that this information reaches a wide audience and informs relevant policies.
Our current civil society partners we will be working with under this grant include:
Several of our partners recently showcased our partnership to address illegal gold mining in the Amazon at this year’s CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia. We invite you to watch a recording of the event livestream here.
We are extremely grateful for the generous support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and look forward to what we can accomplish through our expanding partnership network.