Suriname, a Dutch colony until the 1970s, has made great efforts to
protect its rainforests. In 1998, the government created the roughly 4
million-acre (1.6 million-hectare) Central Suriname Nature Reserve,
setting aside some 10 percent of the country.
But thousands of illegal miners, many of them Brazilian, have also
long worked throughout the interior, contaminating rivers in some areas
with mercury used to separate gold from ore.
Researchers found high quality water conditions in the region they
studied, but some of their samples had mercury above safe levels for
drinking even though there was apparently no upstream mining. Larsen
said he believes the mercury is blowing in from mining and industrial
activities in neighboring nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment