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Extent of Peruvian Amazon lost to illegal goldmines mapped first time
Posted by Guardian: Dan Collyns on October 29th, 2013
Guardian: The area affected by illegal gold mining in Peru's south-eastern Amazon region increased by 400% from 1999 to 2012, according to researchers using state-of-the-art mapping technology.
Using airborne mapping and high-satellite monitoring, researchers led by the Carnegie Institution for Science also showed that the rate of forest loss in Madre de Dios has tripled since the 2008 global economic crisis, when the international price of gold began to rise to new highs.
Until this study, thousands...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Extent of Peruvian Amazon lost to illegal goldmines mapped first timePeru declares environmental state of emergency in its rainforest
Posted by Guardian: Dan Collyns on March 26th, 2013
Guardian: Peru has declared an environmental state of emergency in a remote part of its northern Amazon rainforest, home for decades to one of the country's biggest oil fields, currently operated by the Argentinian company Pluspetrol.
Achuar and Kichwa indigenous people living in the Pastaza river basin near Peru's border with Ecuador have complained for decades about the pollution, while successive governments have failed to deal with it. Officials indicate that for years the state lacked the required...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Peru declares environmental state of emergency in its rainforestPeru’s fog catchers net water supplies
Posted by Guardian: Dan Collyns on September 19th, 2012
Guardian: Sandwiched between the cool ocean currents of the Pacific Ocean and the Andean foothills, Peru's coastal capital is a meteorological anomaly. Lima is the second-largest desert city after Cairo, yet it has a cooler and more humid climate than its subtropical latitude might suggest. Rainfall is extremely low – less than 4cm annually – but humidity can reach 98%.
The city – home to a third of Peruvians, nearly 9 million people – is dependent on three rivers that flow from the Andes, the Rimac, Chillon...