The Amazon
Peru: Amazon highway at issue in Toledo scandal
The Inter-Oceanic Highway, long a focus of protest in Peru's Amazon, is at issue in the corruption scandal implicating ex-president Alejandro Toledo.
Tag: Madre de Dios
The Amazon
Peru: dramatic rainforest loss from mining
Illegal gold mining in Peru has razed almost 62,500 hectares of rainforest—an area over ten times the size of Manhattan—over the past four years.
The Amazon
Fears for isolated tribe in Bolivian rainforest
Indigenous leaders in Pando region of the Bolivian Amazon issued an urgent call for the protection of "uncontacted" peoples threatened by oil operations.
The Amazon
Peru: losing battle against outlaw gold mining
Peru sent elite troops to raid outlaw gold-mining operations in the Tambopata Nature Reserve—but they are massively outnumbered by perhaps 10,000 illegal miners in the area.
The Amazon
Peru: state of emergency over illegal mining
Peru's President Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in the rainforest region of Madre de Dios following reports of mercury poisoning by outlaw gold-mining operations.
The Amazon
Peru: miner protests paralyze rainforest region
Informal gold-miners paralyzed Peru's southern rainforest region of Madre de Dios for weeks to demand the overturn of executive decrees restricting their activities.
The Amazon
Peru: plan to ‘contact’ isolated tribe draws protest
Indigenous advocates are urgently opposing a plan by Peru's Culture Ministry to establish "contact" with an isolated band in the Amazon under pressure from illegal loggers.
The Amazon
Peru to evacuate village in Amazon conflict
Riverboats were sent to evacuate a rainforest village after it was raided by an isolated indigenous band, apparently pushed from its lands by illegal loggers and narco-traffickers.
The Andes
Peru: government ultimatum to illegal miners
Peru's government has issued an "ultimatum" to small-scale miners, threatening to dynamite their equipment if they do not clear out of the remote areas where they operate.
The Amazon
Peru: oil spill threatens rainforest reserve
Indigenous leaders in Peru’s Amazon protested that a leak from Pluspetrol’s oil operations is causing contamination within the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.
The Andes
Peru: peasant leader killed in Cajamarca
Carlos Vásquez Becerra, a campesino leader who opposed mining projects in Peru’s conflicted Cajamarca region, was found beaten to death in a canyon.
The Amazon
Peru: suit launched to stop Camisea expansion
Peru's Amazonian organizations are suing the government and oil companies over proposals to expand the Camisea gas project into land inhabited by "uncontacted" or isolated tribes.