The illegal minery depredated a total of 784 hectares of jungle forests in 2023 alone in the Punino River area, one of the enclaves most affected by this illicit gold extraction activity in the Amazon of Ecuador.
This was reported this Thursday by the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project (MAAP), an initiative that monitors the progress of deforestation in the Amazon basin through the analysis and comparison of satellite images.
The area affected by illegal mining in the Punino River area, located between the provinces of Napo and Orellana, went from 267 hectares in 2023 to exceed 1,000, which represents an increase of 261%.
A total of 904 hectares, equivalent to 90.4% of the total affected area, are outside the limits of the areas authorized for mining, so the MAAP infers that it is illegal mining.
The area of activity of these miners borders the recently created El Chaco Municipal Conservation Area, a space adjacent to the Sumaco Napo-Galeras National Park.
The unprecedented advance of illegal mining has continued despite some operations against illegal mining carried out last year, such as one in September where the military located and disabled improvised camps of illegal miners and destroyed at least fifteen pieces of machinery.
This MAAP report is part of a series focused on the Ecuadorian Amazon, through a strategic collaboration between the organizations Fundación EcoCiencia and Amazon Conservation, with the support of the Norwegian Development Cooperation Agency (Norad).
Source: Gestion
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