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A surge in unlawful mining has wiped out 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon, accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, based on findings.

About 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the Peruvian nation since the mid-1980s, and the ecological damage is spreading rapidly across the country, research found.

The gold rush is also contaminating its waterways. Unlawful extractors use dredges – equipment that disrupt and displace riverbeds – depositing harmful mercury used to extract gold from sediment in their path.

Detailed satellite photographs allowed researchers to detect mining equipment alongside deforestation for the first time, revealing that the ecological disaster previously limited to the south of the country was creeping north.

“We used to only see it in the Madre de Dios region but now we’re seeing it everywhere,” commented an official involved in the research.

Gold values topped $4,000 for the first time this week on global exchanges as global anxiety rose about financial fragility. Native communities have raised concerns that as the value climbs, militant factions were more frequently destroying their forests and poisoning their rivers in pursuit of the valuable mineral.

Satellite photos show that previously lush forest areas are being converted into lifeless moonscapes of grey earth pocked with stagnant pools of green water.

“This small section is just a tiny sample,” a researcher remarked, pointing to a small section of the vast red patchwork of deforestation documented in the study. “Imagine this multiplied to 140,000 hectares.”

The mercury residues build up in aquatic life and pass to the people who eat them, leading to neurological and developmental problems such as congenital disorders and developmental delays.

An ongoing study of riverside communities in Peru’s northernmost region of Loreto found the median level of mercury was nearly four times the safe threshold set by global health authorities.

Research found that hundreds of waterways have been affected, with 989 dredges observed in Loreto since recent years – including 275 in the current year on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon River that is the vital source of natural habitats and dozens of Indigenous communities.

“Our waterways are being contaminated – it’s the drinking water that we drink,” said a representative 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. Government authorities is nowhere to be seen,” he stated with anger.

Extraction activities remains concentrated in the Madre de Dios region in southern Peru but new hotspots are appearing in northern regions in multiple provinces.

They are small but once mining is established it could expand quickly, a researcher said, adding that the report was a glimpse into what was happening across the rest of the Amazon.

“It marks the initial occasion we’ve been able to examine so closely at a nation but I think in neighboring countries we are going to see similar patterns,” he added.

Research showed additional mining equipment appearing on Peru’s forest borders with Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.

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 groups from Colombia and Brazil, are increasingly active across the border.

“International crime networks trafficking cocaine and concealing illicit gains through illegal gold mining – amid record values providing hefty returns – are alongside a administration that has failed to act decisively against criminal enterprises,” the expert stated.

An intergovernmental group of Latin American nations told Peru to address unlawful extraction or it could face economic sanctions.

But an expert said: “Gold is just so profitable at present. I don’t see any signs of a decline in value, so it’s likely going to deteriorate before it gets better.”