On the banks of the Madre de Dios river, dredges work day and night in search of gold, part of a scourge of illegal mining that is slowly devouring the Peruvian Amazon. This mega-diverse region of southeast Peru has lost on average 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres) of rain forest -- an area twice the size of Paris -- every year since 2017 despite policing efforts locals say are insufficient.
