Abstract
Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (∼18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006–2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R2 = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003–2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (∼500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.
Highlights
World demand for natural resources is increasingly driving local resource extraction and land use [1]
We examine the relationship between increases in global gold prices, mined area, and Peruvian mercury imports
We found that recent mining is converting primary forest at a non-linear rate alongside increasing gold prices (Figures 3 and S1)
Summary
World demand for natural resources is increasingly driving local resource extraction and land use [1]. As the global economy becomes more tightly connected, it is increasingly difficult for developing countries to harness the lucrative forces of global demand in the interest of social and environmental sustainability [2]. The price continues to set new records, rising to over .$1400/oz at the time of this article’s publication [4]. Nonindustrial informal gold mining has risen in developing countries along with grave environmental and health consequences [5,6]. Gold mining activity has seen surges in response to global markets in the past in this region [7], but seems to be increasing to new widespread levels as a response to record high prices [8,10,11]
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