Now they are ravaging its pristine tropical rainforests and river systems, including some of Peru’s most important nature reserves, using primitive mining techniques to churn through vast quantities of the region’s rich, sandy soils, sparkling with specks of the precious metal.
As the do so, they poison the water table with mercury and carve out vast, toxic holes in the virgin jungle.
“It is a disaster zone,” says Jorge Herrera, director of the southern Amazon program for the Peruvian branch of the World Wildlife Fund.
No comments:
Post a Comment