Scarred, poisoned wasteland highlights Peru's challenges in halting deforestation

Decades of illegal gold mining have transformed large expanses of virgin Peruvian rainforest into pocked, denuded, mercury-poisoned wastelands.
Excavations to separate gold flecks from tons of earth have left holes big enough to swallow a half-dozen buses. Mercury, a neurotoxin used to bind the gold, pervades the local food chain, reaching humans through the fish they eat.
The ruined lands scar the southeastern region of Madre de Dios, a mecca of biodiversity whose natural marvels lure eco-tourists and where several tribes live in voluntary isolation.
Most of the destruction has been done by invaders from outside the region, though thousands of them have left in recent months as the government has cracked down on illegal mining, dynamiting mining machinery, dismantling brothels and cutting off gasoline supplies.
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/12/02/ap-photos-illegal-gold-minings-wasteland