Peruvian mainland biodiversity proudly calls itself the province of Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon Basin, on the border with Brazil. Tourists come here from all over the world for eco-lodges in pristine jungle to experience a touch to see parrots, turtles and an ocelot in the wild. That for the trip to Madre de Dios A yellow fever vaccination is required, increases the appeal of the calculated and safe adventure.
Most tourists who arrive equipped in the capital, Puerto Maldonado with the latest survivability equipment from the Globetrotter catalog remains unaware that the real fever, which is rampant in Madre de Dios, only the color with the yellow fever is common. The gold fever has broken out across Peru, and the remote region Selva Madre de Dios is the legendary "El Dorado" of the Peruvian adventurer without travel insurance.
In Madre de Dios and work at least 20 000 illegal small miners and earn 6% of the GDP of Peru - all within the Illegality and at the expense of the environment.
long time, had the policy in Lima a blind eye to the environmental devastation of illegal mining. Madre de Dios and other remote gold mining areas were no man's land, Wild West, where only the law of the jungle applies and where one or the other main Städtler secretly involved in the gold boom. Until the first Environment Ministers of Peru, Antonio Brack, in February 2010 the matter was addressed. A government decree Decreto de Urgencia -012 forbade the so-called "Dragas" floating gold mining mills on the rivers announced, and the legalization of mining rights and the Zonifizierung the area. While the decree in the capital and met with environmentalists to pleasure, he set off in Madre de Dios and the rest of the informal mining areas in Peru day-long protests that claimed six lives.
An inspection in Huepetue, the main gold mining area in Madre de Dios might demonstrate, what this dispute is.
the way to Huepetue
In Mazuko separates the path between the new Interoceánica that leads to the Peruvian highlands, and the road to nowhere. After Huepetue, the largest gold mining area in Madre de Dios, feared and notorious. On the banks of the Inambari brisk traffic. Small motor boats to get people on the Amazon tributary, to continue on from there, one and a half hours after Huepetue. Name and ID number are scrupulously recorded in an old exercise book before the trip starts in the ramshackle boat, "in the event that someone is drowning," reads the information. Young and old men in the boat with Indian facial features, that is, they come from the highlands of Peru. Here not drive foreign tourists and journalists are not welcome. My counterpart in the boat, a sinewy, taut little man about 50 to until I assure him that I am neither a "ambientalista" environmentalist "had still belonged to an NGO. Only when I tell him that I, like him, looking a gold grain bin, ie, after a story that I can sell it to thaw on his mouth. Not self-serving motives are inherently suspect.
On the other side, waiting for a series of Toyota pickup trucks to bring the miners to Hupetue. Half hours to rumble off-road vehicles through green landscapes, until suddenly opens up a desert landscape. "Here begins Huepetue, the gold mining area," says my passenger Alonso, a 20-year-old man from a village near Cusco, now comes the second time to the lowlands to "somewhere in the back" to dig for gold. Wherever give him a piece of the gold barons earth to gold panning.
River Huepetue no longer exists. Instead of him we drive through a mile-long gravel and clay pit, pushing himself through the small waterways, which once made up the flow.
The gold is washed down by the rivers of the Andes. The river sand and the adjacent shore rescue the Begert raw material. Gold mining in Madre de Dios will therefore not mine, but the river or near the river instead. The river-banks and sand is dug up, the adjoining woodlands are simply cut down. 150 000 hectares of Amazon forest will have already given their lives for the gold, according to figures of the Peruvian environment minister.
on a chute separates the dredged sand. The coarse gravel is such a waste Heaps piled in the fine sand on the other hand there are the coveted gold fragments. This is then reacted with mercury (at a ratio of at least 2:1 mercury sand) mixed, and thus separated the gold.
How much mercury in Madre de Dios is on the way, already contaminated the rivers and threatens the health of mine workers, no one knows.
In informal miners we tend to, in a poor peasant who goes with his ice ax into a disused mines, or umgräbt with his paddle the river sand. Far from it. The so-called "mineria artesanal" in Madre de Dios has long been no more manual work, but industrialization in various degrees. The small miners can buy a so-called "Chupadera", a diesel-powered hand-held device, which pulls in the river gravel, throws in a pile, then where the fine sand and gold are divorced. Large investors - and there will be some - to operate the so-called "Dragas" floating gravel factories, moving around on the jungle rivers back and forth.
Others work with large trucks and shovels. Just as the gold barons of Huepetue.
the gold barons of Huepetue
"They are not just good to talk to people from outside," warns the mayor of Huepetue before unleashing me with a taxi driver, my luck to try. I would like to visit one of the gold barons. Daniel, the driver of the pick-ups, knows them all personally, and wants to take me to the family Huaranho. Again, the mile-long ride through gravel pits, rivers as trickles through extensive wind Lehmwüsten because where was not long ago the Amazon forest and a river tearing. The claims were staked here by people from the highlands many years ago. Today they sit on their gravel pits and guard their territory. Gold digging is family business. And some families are very very powerful. They live on their gold mine, often heavily guarded. Not by the police, but by their own security people. All around hustle and bustle of large trucks and shovels to dig the earth. Yet two weeks ago was one of the families, the camp attacked, 15 kilos of gold have stolen the 10 masked robbers, says Daniel. They are at least $ 1,500,000 - at that time, because since February 2010, the gold price has risen again.
We drive on the gravel hill, from which the family operates its Huaranho Gold Empire. In front of the house are several new pick-up cars. Otherwise, silence, I imagine that lurks behind the windows of someone with a gun to scare away unwanted visitors. Daniel preceded to talk with Mr. Huaranho. Contrite he comes back after a few Minunten. have scolded " they tell me how I could dare to bring people here from outside. " Daniel is afraid that he is on the gold barons now in disgrace, and is no longer called for driving services. Here are all dependent on the large families.
We make one last attempt at Cecilio Vaca. The legendary Cecilio Vaca came as a simple soldier from Cusco to the area 60 years ago and today has one of the informal Goldimperien of Madre de Dios. The other belongs to his ex-wife, La Goya, feared in the counter if their hardness, says Daniel. Cecilio Vaca, however, was for many years mayor of Huepetue and has, despite his nearly 80 years, still political ambitions. This is the reason why can not he let me brush-off as rough as the other gold barons. I surprise him when eating on his porch in his gravel mountain. An old man, he was sick, he says, and therefore knew very little. Yes, the new decree of the government. For decades, the gold miners were undisturbed, have no tax paid, not to mention Umweltabgaben.Dass it can not stay that way, they know, but the "ambientalistas Radical" by Environment Minister Blackburn will not win at least. In the words of Cecilio Vaca, the word "ambientalista" - environmentalists - like "terrorista".
We go back to the moon craters in the capital Hupetue. Where business is booming. On the unpaved main street is brand new pick-up cars lined in a row. The stores offer new diesel engines for the "Chupaderas" that two competing telephone companies Telefonica and Claro to wealthy individuals. The gold buying stations in the same well-equipped Huepetue bank branches, with air conditioning, and upholstered chairs for the customers. In the branch of "Invergold, buying a gold chain from Cusco, the clerk shows me a small lump of raw gold. 150 Soles he wants for it, 40 €, it's not even that for a tiny piece of jewelry. The amount of gold that would just be enough for a ring, costs 600 soles, special price in Huepethue. The state minimum wage in Peru is 500 Soles - per month.
the pick-up taxi that will bring me back to Mazuko, I get to my seat neighbors in conversation, a 40-year-old stocky man who ignored a briefcase itself. Nothing that he had made the long trip from Puerto Maldonado, he says. He was representative for tree seeds, which he sells to afforestation projects. Someone had told him would be to ensure Huepetue needs. The mayor did not receive him but first do and finally said, as long as it would be gold would be here, dug in and Huepetue planted any trees.
Who wins?
Following the protest of informal miners in Peru, the government set up a round table in Puerto Maldonado. There, the associations of the miners are sitting with the government to find out about the future Zonifizierung the region to coordinate and formalize their businesses. After all, the Peruvian State to avoid the 15 million U.S. dollars in annual taxes, not to mention the environmental damage, and the spiral of violence that brings with it the illegal business. On the other hand, there are up to 60 000 informal miners (some say even up to 80 000), which its grains do excavated from the global boom in gold, and as subsistence farmers without mining or busy city dwellers eke out a meager existence. to speak nothing of the value chain of dealers and distributors.
An alternative approach could be to promote formal cooperatives of miners and ethically acceptable in the production of gold. There are already alternative technologies that do not use mercury to separate the gold. A simple and peaceful solution can be how to deal with the problem of illegal mining in the gold boom times, is not in sight. Against yellow fever, there is a vaccine. Against the gold fever, however, is still not grown herb.
( appeared in print in June 2010 ila )
