Overview
- A new ACCA/MAAP analysis using high‑resolution satellite images identified more than 500 hectares of forest cleared inside the Tambopata National Reserve between late 2025 and early 2026.
- The team mapped 183 active mining setups and 67 illegal camps and estimated roughly 1,000 people are extracting gold inside the protected area.
- Activity has clustered in the reserve’s north near the Malinowski River, with heavy losses in Isla Córdoba, sector A4 and Isla Correntada, and with new sites creeping toward the Otorongo, Azul and Yarinal posts.
- Police and military raids carried out in January through March 2026 destroyed machinery and fuel, yet mining reappeared quickly inside the same zones.
- Experts cite record gold prices in 2025, tight enforcement budgets and extensions of the Reinfo registry for informal miners as key drivers, which heighten mercury pollution risks and expose rangers and nearby residents to violence.