Peru Shares RAMI Technology and Training Against Illegal Mining with Brazil

Experts from Conservación Amazónica – ACCA in Peru hosted a training workshop in the use of the RAMI (Radar Mining Monitoring) tool at an event with the goal of building capacity and transferring technology to specialists in environmental monitoring at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainability (SEMAS) in the Brazilian state of Pará. The main […]


Co-Founder of Amazon Conservation, Enrique Ortiz, and Former Board Member, Miles Silman, Speak About Illegal Gold Mining in Article for Science Magazine

On January 11, 2023, Science Magazine, one of the world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, published an article on the effects of illegal gold mining in rivers around the world, including the Peruvian Amazon. Legal and illegal gold mining activity has surged over the past 20 years and affects 173 large rivers in 49 countries today. […]


Camanti: Turning a Former Mining Hotspot in Peru into a Recognized Conservation Area 

In 2019, we reported record high levels of gold mining deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon, with the Camanti area in the Cusco region representing one of the top three most threatened areas after La Pampa and Upper Malinowski. But this past week the protected area was officially established as the Camanti Sostenible Conservation Concession, […]


Radar Monitoring, the Newest Ally in the Fight Against Illegal Gold Mining

 With the ability to see through the dense layers of clouds that are a hallmark of the rainforest, track illegal gold mining, and send deforestation alerts throughout the year, RAMI is the most recent ally in the fight against illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon. A newly developed geospatial technology tool, RAMI (Radar Mining […]


Patrolling From Space: Empowering the Peruvian Government and Local Communities to Stop Illegal Deforestation

2020 marked an important 5-year milestone in our partnership with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to build government and community capacity for real-time deforestation monitoring and to combat illegal deforestation in Peru. Building on the trust and expertise we established over our 20-year history, we helped the forest service, prosecutors, and police agencies […]


Preserving Agrobiodiversity and Ancestral Farming Practices in Peru

We helped establish two new protected areas to safeguard nearly 50,000 acres from deforestation and unsustainable development in one of the most biodiverse areas in the Peruvian Amazon. Señor de la Cumbre now protects 7,800 acres of forest in Madre de Dios, an area heavily affected by deforestation from illegal gold mining. The second supports […]


Tracking Gold Mining With New Radar-Based Satellite Monitoring Tool

This past month we launched our Radar Mining Monitoring Tool (RAMI), which is a new satellite monitoring tool that incorporates radar technology. Traditional satellite monitoring is effective in tracking deforestation but is limited by cloud cover. This new tool will help us more effectively monitor and combat illegal gold mining in real-time, as radar allows […]


MAAP #134: Agriculture And Deforestation In The Peruvian Amazon

For the first time, Peru has a detailed National Agricultural Area Map. This unique map, produced with high-resolution satellite imagery, was published by the Peruvian Ministry of Agrarian Development (MIDAGRI) in January.* This map reveals that the agricultural area at the national level is 11.6 million hectares, as of 2018. Here, we analyze this new information […]


MAAP #126: Drones and Legal Action in the Peruvian Amazon

The southern Peruvian Amazon (Madre de Dios region), is threatened by illegal mining, logging, and illegal deforestation. In response, an association of forest concessionaires (known as ACOMAT) is implementing a comprehensive monitoring system that links the use of technology (satellites and drones) with legal action. ACOMAT was formed in 2012 and now comprises 15 forestry concessions, covering 440,000 acres (178,000 […]