The People Resisting Peru’s Illegal Goldrush

Diana lives in Huánuco, a part of the Amazon where there are particular issues with illicit gold. As an environmental defender she has received death threats. CAFOD

Teenagers are especially vulnerable to the lure of illegal mining, said the 27-year-old mother: ‘Our young people don’t have many options. Boys of 12 or 13 years who should be studying are going to work for the miners. There are young girls, who become cooks for miners and who are sexually abused by them. There’s a lot of sexual abuse. Often teenagers are given clothes and other things their parents can’t provide for them.’

Illegal mining also sows divisions within communities: ‘Sometimes community members receive a bit of money to speak in favour of illegal gold. When we defenders raise our voices in protest, we are persecuted by miners but also by community members acting on their behalf. I myself was threatened with death for taking a stand against illegal mining. They want you out and will use any means.

‘The miners know what they are doing: they buy the conscience of people,’ she added.

INTERVENTIONS AND GOOD INTENTIONS

In some parts of the Amazon, the government has been active in trying to stop illegal miners, with 130 interventions a month in 2026 so far. These may involve capturing or disabling equipment and making arrests. But success in one especially affected area, Madre de Dios, has had the unintended consequence that the miners have simply shifted elsewhere, said Ruth Mier y Terán from the Amazonian Center for Anthropology and Practical Application (CAAAP).

Puerto Inca in Huánuco has become the new hotspot for illegal gold mining. Analysis by Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) reveals that deforestation for illegal mining in the region of Huánuco went from 558 hectares in 2024 to more than 1,700 hectares in 2025. More than 95 per cent was in the buffer zone of the protected El Sira Communal Reserve and more than a third was within Indigenous community land. Illegal mining has become the main cause of deforestation, exceeding clearing for agriculture, and it’s much more damaging, leaving a polluted wasteland that cannot be cultivated.

But during the past three years, said Diana, there had been only two government-led interventions in illegal mining in her region, despite its rapid growth. She said she did know whether this was because of its remoteness, lack of money or lack of interest.

Successive Peruvian governments have struggled with what do about the growth in mining taking place outside the formal, legal framework of official mining companies. There are estimated to be at least 500,000 informal miners, with some mining copper as well as gold. Not all informal mining is illegal or extremely damaging environmentally. But in the fragile ecosystem of the Amazon, it is both.

Nationwide, the state operates a system (called REINFO) enabling informal miners to sign up and start a process of formal registration that would ultimately lead to them paying taxes, abiding by environmental codes and so on. But the process is complex, take-up has been low and the deadline for registration keeps being extended year on year. So, typically what happens is that miners arrive in a location, start mining, and only later may – or may not – sign up to apply for registration.

WHAT SHOULD PERU’S GOVERNMENT DO?

Along with other Indigenous leaders and organizations across the country, Diana is calling upon the government to withdraw all mining concessions in Indigenous territories and to speed up Indigenous land titling.

Peru has so far failed to sign up to the international 2018 Escazú Agreement which has binding protection for environmental human rights defenders.

‘Without defenders there is no water, no woods, no fish, no animals. We know that not just for our community or for Peru but also at an international level. It’s a challenge for us, we must get them to act in favour of communities. Otherwise, in 20, 30 years we will be history.’

Defenders are being assassinated and there’s no justice for us in a country that favours the assassins.

Legislatively, however, Peru has gone in the opposite direction, passing so-called ‘pro-crime’ laws that have weakened environmental controls, extending the deadline for REINFO for example and amending the Forestry Law. The new APCI law, with its oppressive and restrictive oversight of NGOs that receive international funding, has not helped either.

VIGILANCE AND DEFENDERS

Taking matters in their own hands, Indigenous communities have set up their own self- defence groups. The Asháninka Guards is one example.

Using modern technology, people patrol their territories to try and defend themselves against threats such as illegal mining. But such initiatives can sometimes lead to community members themselves being criminalized. ‘As a leader I am afraid that they will kill me. Or will send me to prison,’ said Diana. The election of right-winger Keiko Fujimori as Peru’s new president, with her personal support for extractives and lack of interest in Indigenous communities, is cause for even greater concern.

Now, several Indigenous organizations, backed by allied NGOs, are calling upon parliamentarians to pass a law to recognize Indigenous self-defence. The issue is currently before Congress.

These Ashaninka community members are part of the Indigenous Amazonian Security self-defence group, fighting to protect themselves and their territories against illegal gold mining mafias. The defenders are currently seeking government recognition. CAAAP

But they are up against the structural racism that characterizes much policy related to Indigenous Amazonians, said CAAAP’s Ruth Mier. ‘The Amazon is still viewed by many as an open space – but one full of resources to be exploited.’

INTERNATIONAL ACTION

International action is key. And those in charge of how global gold markets operate have a share of responsibility.

New gold is used mainly as a store of value, with 40 per cent taking the form of bullion, 50 per cent as jewellery, and just 10 per cent for use by industry and medicine.

Ruth joined Diana in London as part of a wider delegation, organized by several NGOs including CAFOD, Peru Support Group, ABColombia and CAAAP. Together they are calling for stronger international regulation of supply chains, including mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence; traceability requirements for gold and high-risk commodities and stronger controls on laundering of illegally sourced minerals. Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) is held up as a good example.

There is also a call for technical and financial co-operation with Indigenous communities to strengthen satellite monitoring, ariel surveillance and laboratory analysis of mercury and microplastics.

Meanwhile, there are ongoing demands for a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to establish a comprehensive framework for corporate accountability in relation to global supply chains.

As Britain prepares to host an Illicit Finance Summit in December, there could be an opportunity for building an international coalition to address the human rights abuses that trading in illicit gold is allowing and encouraging.

*Diana’s real name has been withheld out of concern for her safety.

Vanessa Baird is a writer, activist and contributing editor to New Internationalist, with a wide range of interests relating to equality, social justice, human rights, and the environment. She was a journalist in Peru in the 1980s and retains a keen interest in the region. Her published books include The No-Nonsense Guide to World Population, Sex, Love and Homophobia, and The Little Book of Big Ideas. She is an Amnesty International Human Rights Media Award winner (2012).