Bitcoin Rectifies the Impact of Illegal Gold Mining in Amazon

Bitcoin Rectifies the Impact of Illegal Gold Mining in Amazon, In Peru’s Madre de Dios province, Puerto Maldonado has the sense of a frontier town. Rustic buildings, dusty streets, new construction, and the hustle and bustle of people trying to make it.

Tourists are transported by bus through town to one of the several ecotourism firms that bring visitors from all over the world to see the Amazon. Puerto Maldonado is located on the Tambopata River, which is a tributary of the Amazon. When the clay-licking macaws were featured on the cover of the January 1994 National Geographic issue, the Tambopata River gained some ecotourism popularity. Since then, the industry has exploded.

Tourists are usually promptly transferred to boats on the Tambopata and transported to private lodges for ecotourism operations. Some of these are joint ventures with indigenous tribes in the area, while others are outright proprietors of private land along the river’s banks.

When you go through the streets of Puerto Maldonado, you’ll notice streets that have a frontier air to them… and you’ll come across a slew of gold buyers and related businesses. The gold trade is booming, and it’s all coming from the darkest parts of the world.

This is not the gold trading of publicly traded mining firms

This is not the gold trading of publicly traded mining firms. This isn’t a gold trade run by private, ethical businesses. Obviously, this isn’t Peter Schiff’s gold business. This is the black market for gold, which is both illegal and unregulated. This is the type of trade that is influenced by price.

This is the trade that exploits the poor while empowering criminal gangs and organizations. This is the underworld’s trade. This community of less than 100,000 people is essentially a tale of two worlds colliding. Ecotourism is reliant on a healthy ecology, as well as the gold trade, which obliterates the forest.

Surprisingly, the growth of ecotourism resulted in increased protection upstream from Puerto Maldonado, with ecotourism hotels establishing private reserves and operating concessions on indigenous property. The Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park now share a buffer zone.

I’ve been visiting this region of the Amazon every year for over a decade, and the rise in wildlife sightings along the journey reflects the changes. To reach deep into the forest, one must travel roughly six hours upstream from Puerto Maldonado. Where the Malinowski River meets the Tambopata, there is a government checkpoint.

The two extremely different realities in this section of the Amazon are symbolized by this “fork in the road.” From the Malinowski checkpoint, you can enjoy some of the most pristine and dynamic portions of the Amazon basin by following the Tambopata River. You’ve arrived in one of the world’s most biologically diverse areas; the diversity speaks for itself. The variety of plants is so great that it might be difficult to understand. The river’s energy is incredible.

The myth with Crypto in Gold mining

It is destructive on one hand, as it eats away at one bank of the river, where ancient trees are destroyed as the river’s edge decays into the fast-moving water. The flow is slowed by silt and sand brought from the adjacent Andes on the other bank, which has been built up.

Because of the silt transported down from the Andes, these Amazon tributaries have also taken gold dust down from the highlands. On a clear day, the Puno highlands may be seen from this region of the Amazon, and the snow-capped peaks contrast with the lush greenery of the forest. It’s a sensory experience and a wonderfully breathtaking landscape.

Life quickly colonizes the new banks as they are erected. Grass and tiny, fast-growing plants are followed by lightwood tree species in the ecological succession. The diversity of the population grows throughout time. You can witness forest in various phases of succession on one bank and old diversified woodland on the other as you walk upriver.

The dynamism is palpable. As the river changes course, the river will braid as islands form and oxbow lakes form. Lakes live until they become swamps, then forests. This dynamism implies that the diversity found is compounded by a variety of habitats.

Tourists flock to the “lungs of the Earth” to experience the depths of nature

They come to watch the many macaw and parrot species that cluster at the clay licks to consume clay. They’re hoping to witness a jaguar as well as a harpy eagle. They are frequently startled when they hear the red howler monkeys. Spider monkeys amaze them with their agility. When a troop of 40 white-lipped peccaries races past them while mired in thigh-high muck, they become frozen in panic. This region of the Amazon is not for everyone, but it is unique.

These experiences, as well as the forest’s natural functioning, are dependent on a healthy, virgin forest where the river can run freely. However, the river’s previous flow has resulted in a large swath of this forest growing in silt containing gold dust.

A radically different world awaits you if you choose the other fork in the road at the Malinowski checkpoint. Following the Malinowski River will lead you to the informal and illegal mining operations that have wreaked havoc on this region of the Amazon. Interoceanica Sur, the route that connects the Pacific and the Atlantic, as well as Peru and Brazil via the Amazon, goes parallel to the Malinowski. Miners began their operations along this highway in the beginning.

The operations were then expanded to the south, towards the Malinowski River. This isn’t the only place where disaster has struck. You may view the consequences of the gold mining for yourself by searching the Interoceanica Sur near the Malinowski on Google Maps or Google Earth (use these coordinates: -12.8657205,-69.9867795). Remember, that photo was taken in the past; things have gotten worse since then. The hellscape that is created is difficult to overstate. From the forest to the inert earth. The woodland has been completely destroyed. It is the total annihilation of the forest as a possibility.

It’s transforming pristine forests into pools of heavy metal-tainted water and sand and silt dunes. There is no hope for survival. Surprisingly, the satellite photographs reveal beauty in the rainbow ponds that have formed among the sand that has been left behind. Even total destruction can be beautiful.

Mercury is used to amalgamate the gold dust.

When it rains, some mercury enters rivers, where it bioaccumulates and subsequently biomagnifies its way up the food chain. Over 3,000 tons of mercury have been estimated to have entered Peruvian Amazon rivers in the last two decades. According to a 2013 survey, 95 percent of inhabitants in Madre de Dios’ rural, largely indigenous areas have mercury levels over what is deemed safe.

The fact that most fish species would have elevated mercury levels is the most likely explanation, according to studies. Even in the metropolis of Puerto Maldonado, three out of four residents have mercury levels above the recommended upper limit, with many exceeding it.

The illegal gold trade’s human toll does not end with heavy metal poisoning. The gold fields are rife with sex trafficking, child rape, and rural poverty exploitation.

So, how does Bitcoin address this issue? Illegal gold is price sensitive. Any reduction in gold’s monetary premium will have an immediate impact on the Amazon’s demise. The damage will accelerate if the price of gold rises. If the price of gold falls as a result of bitcoin absorbing the monetary premium of gold as investors recognize it as a better money and store of value, illicit gold miners will reduce their activities.

These companies don’t make gold at a loss. Peru’s administration has demonstrated its inability — or, more precisely, unwillingness — to address this issue. For the first time in history, there is a market solution to the problem of illegal gold mining. Bitcoin is the answer.