The Tambopata River received some fame in ecotourism circles when the clay-licking macaws were featured on the cover of the January 1994 National Geographic issue.
Walking through the streets of Puerto Maldonado, you’ll see streets with that frontier feel … and you’ll find lots of gold buyers and associated businesses.
This town of less than 100,000 inhabitants is largely a story of two opposing worlds.
Interestingly, the boom in ecotourism led to increased protection upstream from Puerto Maldonado through ecotourism lodges setting aside land on private reserves and running concessions on indigenous land.
Following the Tambopata River from the Malinowski checkpoint allows you to experience some of the most pristine and dynamic parts of the Amazon basin.
At one side, it is destructive, as it eats away one bank of the river where ancient trees are felled with the decay of the river’s edge into the fast-moving water.
As you travel upriver, you constantly see forest at various stages of succession on one bank and old diverse forest on the other.
Tourists come to experience the depths of nature of the “lungs of the Earth.” They come to see the various species of macaws and parrots that congregate to eat clay at the clay licks.
A quick Google Maps or Google Earth search of the Interoceanica Sur near the Malinowski and you will be able to see the results of the gold mining for yourself .
This 2013 study has shown that 95% of people in rural, mostly indigenous communities in Madre de Dios, had elevated levels of mercury above what is considered healthy.
Heavy metal poisoning is not the only human toll of the illegal gold trade.
If the price of gold decreases because bitcoin is consuming the monetary premium of gold due to investors recognizing it as an improved money and store of value, then the illegal gold miners will decrease operations.