Overview

• Regional authorities directed Peru to urgently reform laws, end extensions for informal miners, and seize dredges and other mining equipment tied to illicit operations.
• Peru must report compliance within 20 working days or face referral to the Andean Community’s Tribunal of Justice, which can impose binding trade penalties.
• A new analysis reports 140,000 hectares of rainforest cleared for illegal mining since 1984 and shows the crisis spreading north as foreign armed groups move into Peru’s Amazon.
• Researchers and community testing found mercury levels above World Health Organization limits in fish and residents, with a recent Loreto study showing a median nearly four times the recommended threshold.
• Religious and Indigenous leaders are calling on buyer nations including China, the UAE, the UK and Switzerland to require gold traceability, noting Peru’s past raids and record mercury seizures have not curbed the trade.