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A surge in unlawful mining has led to the destruction of 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Amazon region of Peru, accelerating as armed foreign factions move into the area to capitalize on record gold prices, based on findings.

Roughly 540 square miles of land have been converted for extraction activities in the South American country since 1984, and the environmental destruction is growing at an alarming rate across the country, research found.

The gold rush is also poisoning its waterways. Unlawful extractors use dredges – equipment that disrupt and displace riverbeds – leaving toxic mercury used to extract gold from soil in their path.

Ultra-high resolution aerial images enabled analysts to identify dredges together with forest loss for the initial instance, revealing that the ecological disaster once confined to the south of the country was spreading north.

“Initially, it was only observed in Madre de Dios but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” commented an official involved in the research.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the initial occasion this week on international markets as global anxiety increased about financial fragility. Indigenous groups have raised concerns that as the price soars, armed groups were more frequently tearing down their forests and poisoning their water sources in search for the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos show that previously lush forest areas are being converted into lifeless moonscapes of barren soil pocked with standing water of discolored water.

“This little square is just a minor example,” an expert noted, pointing to a limited area of the extensive pattern of deforestation mapped in the report. “Imagine this expanded to one hundred forty thousand hectares.”

The mercury residues build up in fish and are transferred to the people who consume them, causing neurological and developmental problems such as congenital disorders and developmental delays.

An ongoing investigation of riverside communities in Peru’s far north of the Loreto region found the average concentration of mercury was nearly four times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit.

Analysis found that 225 rivers and streams have been affected, with 989 dredges observed in Loreto since recent years – including two hundred seventy-five in the current year on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon that is the vital source of natural habitats and many native populations.

“Our waterways are being contaminated – it’s the drinking water that we drink,” said a spokesperson of multiple local communities in the area.

Local communities began blocking miners from moving along the Tigre River in Loreto recently, resulting in gunfights with militant groups. “We have no choice but to fight back but we are alone. The state is absent,” he stated with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the southern area of Madre de Dios in the south of the country but new hotspots are developing farther north in Loreto, Amazonas, Huánuco, Pasco and Ucayali.

These areas are limited but once extraction begins it could grow rapidly, a researcher noted, adding that the report was a insight into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to look in this detail at a nation but I think in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia we are going to see exactly the same thing,” he commented.

Findings showed more dredges appearing on Peru’s forest borders with adjacent nations.

With gold prices surpassing $4,000 an ounce, international armed factions are more frequently entering into Peruvian territory into unregulated forest areas where local authorities are taking minimal action to halt their activities, according to a criminologist.

Criminal networks, such as factions from neighboring countries, are more involved across the border.

“International crime networks trafficking cocaine and laundering profits through unlawful extraction – now with peak prices providing hefty returns – are combined with a administration that has not been a serious obstacle against organised crime,” the expert stated.

A political coalition of Latin American nations told Peru to get serious about illegal mining or it could face economic sanctions.

But an expert said: “Gold is just so profitable right now. I don’t see any signs of prices going down, so it’s likely going to get worse before it improves.”