@EcoInteractive: #Amazon Deforestation

EcoInteractive

Gold Prices Spur Six-Fold Spike in Amazon Deforestation ~ http://bit.ly/igoqLi

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2011) — Deforestation in parts of the Peruvian Amazon has increased six-fold in recent years as small-scale miners, driven by record gold prices, blast and clear more of the lowland rainforest, according to a new Duke University-led study.

The study, published April 19 in the online journal PLoS ONE, combined NASA satellite imagery spanning six years with economic analyses of gold prices and mercury imports to document the forces responsible for deforestation in Peru's biologically diverse Madre de Dios region.

Roughly 7,000 hectares, or about 15,200 acres, of pristine forest and wetlands were cleared at two large mining sites between 2003 and 2009, with a dramatic increase in deforestation occurring in the last three years.