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Operation Mercury: Major success in reducing illegal gold mining in Peru

Posted on September 9, 2020November 5, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

Building the technology, infrastructure and government capacity needed for authorities and local communities to win the fight against illegal deforestation.

Early in 2019, the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in the southern region of Madre de Dios. The culprit was a familiar one, as the region has been plagued by the illegal gold mining that has plagued the region for decades. The unmanaged and illegal extraction process turned once thriving habitats into wastelands and left behind only toxic fumes and mercury-contaminated lands and rivers. But not all was lost. The government launched Operation Mercury, a series of highly-coordinated military interventions that apprehended illegal gold miners and destroyed the mining camps that not only destroy thousands of acres of forests but were the breeding ground for human trafficking, child labor, sex slavery, and hired hit men. The result was immediate: a 92% decrease in deforestation caused by illegal gold mining in the region.

This intervention was a culmination of years of work. For the past five years, our deforestation satellite monitoring program has given the Peruvian government real-time reports on illegal deforestation. We applied our satellite monitoring expertise to build the government’s capacity in understanding and using this high-tech information within the judicial system, by training judges, prosecutors, and government officials, as well as creating specialized offices to conduct their own satellite monitoring. Since often the complexity and bureaucracy inherent in governments makes it difficult for agencies to step out of their own silos to effectively work together on fighting complex environmental crimes, we also worked to establish the formal intra-governmental relationships necessary for action to take place. Now the government has a working system – called the National System for Control and Monitoring – that uses high-tech information and is able to coordinate large-scale interventions like Operation Mercury.

Photo of Marcelina

The National System provides the government with the framework to combat forest crimes, as well as a way for local people to get involved, as they can send evidence of illegal activities taking place in their forest homes so the government knows where action is needed. Recognizing the important role of everyday forest users in stopping illegal deforestation, we trained 27 people this year in the use of drones and smartphone apps to remotely monitor their forests for invasions and illegal activities, adding to the 73 trained in previous years. Using our technology protects them from potentially life-threatening, face-to-face confrontations as they gather needed evidence. Marcelina G. is one of the drone pilots we helped certify. “Now that I can fly drones, I can make sure people don’t illegally enter my forest and that of my neighbors, so others don’t destroy our forest for their gain.” Marcelina is now working together with the government as a front-line guardian of the Amazon.

Much of this progress has been made thanks to the collaborative work of governments, local communities, international supporters like the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation (Norad), and local conservation organizations nonprofits like us. We will continue to strengthen Peru’s successful monitoring model and help transport it to other areas of the Amazon.

This was a story from our 2019 Impact Report. Click here to read about other conservation successes from 2019.

Protecting the world’s largest remaining tropical glacier and headwaters essential for climate adaptation

Posted on September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

A decade of research, outreach, and negotiations pays off, as Ausangate is officially declared a Regional Conservation Area.

After a decade leading negotiations and building political will in the region, we celebrated a major success: the Peruvian Ministries Council approved the creation of the Ausangate Regional Conservation Area, safeguarding 165,000 acres as an officially designated protected area.

This area’s incredible environmental significance is due in part to the Quelccaya Ice Cap of the Ausangate mountain range. Miguel Ángel Canal, Cusco’s Regional Director of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, stated it best when he said the area, “is considered a global thermometer where the relationship between global warming and glacier melting can be studied.”

The declaration of Ausangate this year was timely, as there was continued pressure from mining companies petitioning the government to create mining concessions (leasing government land to explore precious minerals) in key parts of this conservation area. The majority of local communities have strongly opposed mining exploration due to the mercury contamination caused by the extraction process.

“In the case of Ausangate, I think that the best thing is that the people and the authorities have understood the importance of conserving strategic sites such as this mountain range,” says Marlene Mamani, an Amazon Conservation expert who brings in-depth understanding of the area’s importance from both a climate and cultural perspective. Marlene, a native of the nearby Valle Sagrado community stresses that the city of Cusco gets its water from the mountains and that “people must realize that these snow-capped mountains are vital for our survival.”

With financial support from individuals, foundations, and partners, we were able to help local communities improve their quality of life and incomes by engaging them in sustainable economic activities including managing alpacas and vicuñas for wool production and managing wetlands and pastures that protect their way of life and natural resources from the impacts from climate change.

This was a story from our 2019 Impact Report. Click here to read about other conservation successes from 2019.

Establishing Bolivia’s Largest Conservation Area

Posted on September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

Supporting local government and communities to protect 3.7 million acres of pristine forests, savannas, and wetlands.

In 2019, we helped the local government of Ixiamas, Bolivia establish the Municipal Conservation Area of Bajo Madidi, an area spanning 3.7 million acres (1.5 million hectares). Three times the size of the Grand Canyon, this conservation area is the largest in Bolivia and one of the largest in the world. It hosts a variety of ecological landscapes including wetlands, lowland rainforests, and savannas.

Marsh deer

Throughout the long and complex creation process, we provided the technical expertise and assistance to both the government and local communities that was needed to officially declare the area. We also helped them gather and understand key environmental data on the conservation needs of this landscape to develop the plan to protect it for the long-term. This conservation plan now guides the sustainable use and management of natural resources in Bajo Madidi.

Orinoco goose

This area’s value lies in its major biological significance. While many savannas in Bolivia have been transformed by cattle ranching or road construction, the savannas within Bajo Madidi remain some of the most ecologically-intact savannas in the world. They are home to more than 20 endangered species such as the maned wolf, Orinoco goose, marsh deer, black-faced spider monkey, and the giant anteater, all categorized as “vulnerable” or “threatened” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The protected area will also protect the six rivers that flow through Bajo Madidi, safeguarding critical watersheds and aiding migration of birds, fish, and other animals that contribute to the overall rainforest health. Additionally, it will help maintain local communities’ sustainable harvesting of herbs, fruits, and nuts. This forest alone contains nearly 10% of the world’s Brazil nut trees under production. It also connects nearby nature reserves, creating an important biodiversity corridor of protected lands in the region.

The establishment of this area was a massive undertaking with contributions by local peoples and support from over 800 stakeholders. Successes like these are the foundation of our conservation efforts that have helped protect over 8.3 million acres of forests to date.

This was a story from our 2019 Impact Report. Click here to read about other conservation successes from 2019.

Amazon Fire Tracker 2020: End Of August Update (Over 600 Major Fires)

Posted on September 1, 2020September 9, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

August 2020 just ended its run as a severe Amazon fire month.

Our novel Real-time Amazon Fire Monitoring app has detected 646 major fires in the Brazilian Amazon thus far in 2020.*

Of these, 88% (569 major fires) occurred in August,* and all were illegal, occuring after the burning moratoriums established in July.

Also in August, we saw the sudden appearance of “Forest Fires,” defined here as human-caused fires in standing forest. We detected 82 forest fires in August, which now account for 13% of all the major fires.*

The vast majority of the major fires (79%) continue to burn recently deforested areas, defined here as areas where the forest was previously and recently cleared (between 2018-20) prior to burning.

In fact, over 1.1 million acres (453,000 hectares) of recently deforested areas has burned in 2020. Thus, the fires are actually a smoking indicator of the current rampant deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Base Map

The Base Map is a screen shot of the app’s “Major Amazon Fires 2020” layer (as of September 1). The majority of the major fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been in the states of Pará (37%) and Amazonas (33%), followed by Mato Grosso (16%), Rondônia (13%), and Acre (1%).

The app has detected an additional 58 major fires in the Bolivian Amazon thus far in 2020. The majority of these (71%) have occured in savanna ecosystems in the department of Beni.

Screen shot of the app’s “Major Amazon Fires 2020” layer (as of September 1).

*Notes and Methodology

Data updated as of September 1, starting from the first major fire detected on May 28.

We detected 569 major fires during August in the Brazilian Amazon.

Prior to August, we detected only one forest fire, and that was on July 31.

The app specializes in filtering out thousands of the traditional heat-based fire alerts to prioritize only those burning large amounts of biomass (defined here as a major fire).

In a novel approach, the app combines data from the atmosphere (aerosol emissions in smoke) and the ground (heat anomaly alerts) to effectively detect and visualize major Amazon fires.

When fires burn, they emit gases and aerosols. A new satellite (Sentinel-5P from the European Space Agency) detects these aerosol emissions. Thus, the major feature of the app is detecting elevated aerosol emissions which in turn indicate the burning of large amounts of biomass. For example, the app distinguishes small fires clearing old fields (and burning little biomass) from larger fires burning recently deforested areas or standing forest (and burning lots of biomass).

We define “major fire” as one showing elevated aerosol emission levels on the app, thus indicating the burning of elevated levels of biomass. This typically translates to an aerosol index of >1 (or cyan-green to red on the app). To identify the exact source of the elevated emissions, we reduce the intensity of aerosol data in order to see the underlying terrestrial heat-based fire alerts. Typically for major fires, there is a large cluster of alerts. The major fires are then confirmed, and burn areas estimated, using high-resolution satellite imagery from Planet Explorer.

See MAAP #118 for additional details on how to use the app.

No fires permitted in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso after July 1, 2020. No fires permitted in all of Brazilian Amazon after July 15, 2020. Thus, we defined “illegal” as any major fires detected after these respective dates.

A major fire may be classified as burning across multiple land categories (for example, both recently deforested area and surrounding forest fire) so those percentages do not total 100%.

There was no available Sentinel-5 aerosol data on July 4, 15, and 26.

Acknowledgements

The app was developed and updated daily by Conservación Amazónica (ACCA). The data analysis is led by Amazon Conservation in collaboration with SERVIR Amazonia.

Citation

Finer M, Vale H, Villa L, A. Ariñez, Nicolau A, Walker K (2020) Amazon Fire Tracker 2020: End of August Update (Over 600 Major Fires). MAAP.

2019 Impact Report

Posted on September 1, 2020September 30, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

Dear Friend of the Amazon,

Looking back on 2019, so many moments served as vivid reminders of the important challenges humanity and our planet face. The fires in the Amazon and the global climate emergency were some that stood out to me and highlighted the amazing power we have as a collective force to bring about change. We hope you’ll be inspired by the results we achieved together, shown in our 2019 annual report. Each story here reflects a moment, person, or project that energized us and proved that your contributions are having a real impact.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, our relationship with nature and the need to protect it has never been so important. It’s brought to light how paramount and timely our work is: the health of the forests we protect is directly connected to human wellbeing as well as the general health of our planet.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary this year, we’re forging ahead with a new strategy to protect the Amazon with a new holistic approach that unites people, science, technology, and innovation to move conservation forward. We hope you’ll join us on this journey!

Sincerely,

John Beavers
Executive Director

Drag your mouse across the pages to flip through the annual report, or click here to view the PDF.

You can also click anywhere on the publication to pull up this menu, where you it gives you the optin to view the report in full screen (1) or see a page overview(2).

(1) (2)

Looking Back: Providing Assistance During the 2019 Amazon Fires

Posted on August 31, 2020July 9, 2021 by Ana Folhadella

August 2020 just ended its run as a severe Amazon fire month, with 621 major fires being recorded in the Brazilian Amazon alone, with increasing fires being in Peru and 52 major fires in Bolivia as well. The vast majority of the major fires (80%) are burning recently deforested areas, defined here as areas where the forest was previously and recently cleared (between 2018-20) prior to burning. In fact, over a million acres (435,000 hectares) of recently deforested areas burned in 2020.

However, since last year’s fires, we were able to relaunch a real-time fire monitoring app, with improved methodology and the ability to predict fires based on deforestation trends. The new app uses both aerosol and heat data to prioritize large fires (traditional fire alerts use only heat data), and was one of the many initiatives that we were able to undertake with our supporters’ help during last year’s fires season.

Let’s look back at what other assistance we were able to give during the 2019 fire season.

Volunteer holding 50 fire protection vests

Along with this novel app that helps us monitor from the sky, our organization was also helping fight fires on the ground in Bolivia.

As part of our fire management efforts, we worked with several organizations to generate reliable information to implement actions that are helping firefighters and inhabitants of affected areas. We were able to provide communities and governments with fire prevention training and supplies, so that local people could be better prepared and at the forefront of preventing and fighting forest fires.

Donations that we received last year turned into immediate action during the heart of the fire season, enabling us to move quickly to support communities and governments in firefighting and prevention efforts. Using the donations we received, we:

Supplies for Volunteer Firefighters

Provided 50 firefighting suits and firefighting tools, as well as water, food, and supplies to more than 100 Bolivian volunteer firefighters and park rangers as they worked together to extinguish the fires.

Supported the protection of and firefighting activities in 6 protected areas that were directly affected by the widespread fires in Bolivia, which cover over 17 million of acres of vulnerable and unique ecosystems.

Provided much-needed supplies and maintenance for the vehicles used to mobilize Bolivian fire brigades and park rangers to where the fires were at their worst, for the entire 3 months of the emergency.

Food Supplies for Volunteer Firefighters

Created 12 real-time, fact-based satellite reports of the fires across the Amazon (with a special focus on Brazil and Bolivia) – dispelling myths and giving policymakers, government officials, the media, and the general public up-to-date information on what was actually happening on the ground.

Provided drone overflights in Peru to analyze the impact of the fires in the region and report this vital information to local governments and affected communities.

Food for native species

Provided food for native species whose food sources were destroyed by the fires.

Advanced our conservation work in the Amazon to ensure the present and future protection of conservation areas and indigenous reserves, that helps governments and local people prevent fires and deforestation from happening in the first place.

We are so grateful for all the support we received last year, and continue to use what was left of donations last year address fires again this year. Additionally, we have improved our real-time fire monitoring app to be more precise, aiding local authorities in detecting and addressing large fires. To support important fire detection and prevention efforts, click here.

MAAP #124: Deforestation Hotspots 2020 In The Peruvian Amazon

Posted on August 27, 2020September 9, 2020 by dcadmin

Base Map. 2020 Forest Loss Hotspots in the Peruvian Amazon. Data: UMD/GLAD, MAAP, SERNANP.

We have entered the peak deforestation season in the Peruvian Amazon, so it is also a critical time for real-time monitoring (MAAP’s specialty).

Here, we highlight the major deforestation events documented so far in 2020 (through August 23).

The Base Map shows the current forest loss hotspots, indicated by the colors yellow, orange and red.

Below, we present the most urgent deforestation cases, caused by gold mining and agriculture (both large and small scale), the current leading deforestation drivers in Peru.

The Letters A-I on the Base Map correspond to the location of the cases described below.

One of the key cases is the new illegal gold mining hotspot along the Pariamanu river (Letter A in the southern Peruvian Amazon).

Another important case is the expanding large-scale agriculture by a Mennonite colony that continues causing an alarming deforestation.

The other cases deal with small-scale agriculture, which cumulatively represent the main deforestation driver in Peru.

Urgent Deforestation Cases 2020

1. Gold Mining

In MAAP #121, we reported that, in general, gold mining deforestation has decreased in the southern Peruvian Amazon following the government’s Operation Mercury, but it does continue in several critical areas. The images below show two of these areas (Pariamanu and Araza) with alarming new deforestation in 2020.

A. Pariamanu

The following image shows the gold mining deforestation of 52 acres (21 hectares) of primary forest along the Pariamanu River in the southern Peruvian Amazon (Madre de Dios region) between January (left panel) and August (right panel) of 2020. We highlight that the Peruvian government has just carried out an operation against the illegal mining activity in this area.

Pariamanu case (illegal gold mining). Data: Planet, MAAP.

B. Araza

The following image shows the gold mining deforestation of 114 acres (46 hectares) along the Chaspa River in the Puno region, between January (left panel) and August (right panel) of 2020.

Araza case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

2. Large-scale Agriculture

C. Mennonite Colony (near Tierra Blanca)

We reported last year that a new colony of Mennonites caused the deforestation of 4,200 acres (1,700 hectares) between 2017 and 2019 in the Loreto region (MAAP #112). The following image shows the additional deforestation of 820 acres (332 hectares) in 2020 between January (left panel) and August (right panel).

Mennonite case (near Tierra Blanca). Data: Planet, MAAP.

3. Small-scale Agriculture

D. Jeberos

In 2018, we reported on the construction of a new road (65 km) cutting through primary forest in the Loreto region, between the city of Yurimaguas and the town of Jeberos (MAAP #84). The following image shows the deforestation of 40 acres (16 hectares) along the new road in 2020, between January (left panel) and August (right panel).

Jeberos case (near Tierra Blanca). Data: Planet, MAAP.

E. Las Piedras

The following image shows the deforestation of 64 acres (26 hectares) of primary forest in a Brazil-nut concession along the Las Piedras River in the Madre de Dios region, between November 2019 (left panel) and August 2020 (right panel).

Las Piedras case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

F. Bolognesi

The following image shows an example of deforestation (580 acres or 235 hectares) in one of the areas with the highest concentration of forest loss, located in the Ucayali region.

Bolognesi case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

G. Santa Maria de Nieva

The following image shows an example of deforestation(346 acres or 140 hectares) in another one of the areas with the highest concentration of forest loss, located in the Amazonas region

Santa Maria de Nieva case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

H. Mishahua River

The following image shows the recent deforestation of 168 acres (68 hectares) along the Mishahua River, in the Ucayali region. Just to the north, we documented extensive deforestation along the Sepahua River in 2019, where it also appears to be starting up again in 2020.

Mishahua case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

I. South of Sierra del Divisor National Park

The following image shows an example of deforestation (166 acres or 67 hectares) in another one of the areas with the highest concentration of forest loss, located south of the Sierra del Divisor National Park in the Ucayali region.

Mishahua case. Data: Planet, MAAP.

Methodology

The analysis was based on early warning GLAD alerts from the Universidad de Maryland and Global Forest Watch.

To identify the deforestation hotspots, we conducted a kernel density estimate. This type of analysis calculates the magnitude per unit area of a particular phenomenon, in this case, forest cover loss. We conducted this analysis using the Kernel Density tool from Spatial Analyst Tool Box of ArcGIS. We used the following parameters:

Search Radius: 15000 layer units (meters)
Kernel Density Function: Quartic kernel function
Cell Size in the map: 200 x 200 meters (4 hectares)
Everything else was left to the default setting.

For the Base Map, we used the following concentration percentages: Medium: 7-10%; High: 11-20%; Very High: >20%.

Acknowledgments

We thank S. Novoa and G. Palacios for helpful comments to earlier versions of this report.

This work was supported by the following major funders: Erol Foundation, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC).

Citation

Finer M, Mamani N (2020) Deforestation Hotspots 2020 in the Peruvian Amazon. MAAP: 124.

Amazon Fire Tracker 2020: Over 500 Illegal Major Fires In Brazilian Amazon

Posted on August 24, 2020August 26, 2020 by Ana Folhadella

The Brazilian Amazon just passed a grim milestone: Over 500 illegal major fires thus far in 2020.

The other major headline is that, although most fires continue to burn recently deforested areas, we are now seeing an increase in forest fires.

Our Real-time Amazon Fire Monitoring app has detected 504 major fires in the Brazilian Amazon as of August 24 (starting from the first major fire detected on May 28).

Brazilian Amazon Fire #449, burning both recently deforested area (center) and forest fire (upper center). Data: Planetscope (Planet), MAAP. Click to enlarge.

Some striking stats about this year’s major fires:

97% have occured after the burning moratoriums established in July and are illegal.
85% have occurred in August. Thus, the fire season has been accelerating.
83% have burned recently deforested areas. Thus, the fires are actually a smoking indicator of the rampant deforestation.
12% have been Forest Fires. This number marks a major increase from previous estimate as the fire season intensifies.
4% have occurred in Protected Areas or Indigenous Territories.
856,000 acres (353,000 hectares) have burned in the recently deforested areas fires.
165,000 acres (66,000) have burned in the forest fires.