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Madre de Dios gold mining

Illegal alluvial gold mining eating into Amazon rainforest.

1,901.7 hectares changed — vegetation cleared · Before: 1 May 2018 – 15 Sep 2018 · After: 1 May 2023 – 15 Sep 2023 · -12.900, -70.000

BEFORE 2018-09

AFTER 2023-09

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1,901.7 haarea changed

153areas flagged

6,416 haarea examined

2satellites used

What changed, by type

1,214.1 haVegetation cleared

454.5 haNew vegetation

149.8 haNew water / flooding

56.2 haWater disappeared

14.5 haNew construction / earthworks

12.6 haBurnt ground

Land changes in both directions at once. SCOPE reports every type it measured, not only the one that makes the better headline.

What SCOPE found

Vegetation cleared — 557.3 ha
3.7 km north-west · between 7 Sep 2018 and 14 May 2023 · 96% sure

Vegetation cleared — 413.6 ha
2.1 km north · between 7 Sep 2018 and 14 May 2023 · 96% sure

New water / flooding — 114.3 ha
3.9 km north-east · between 7 Sep 2018 and 14 May 2023 · 96% sure

New vegetation — 95.3 ha
2.6 km south · between 7 Sep 2018 and 3 Jun 2023 · 92% sure

Vegetation cleared — 87.7 ha
1.9 km south-west · between 7 Sep 2018 and 14 May 2023 · 96% sure

How sure is this?

The strongest area (#1) has 96% confidence. It appears in 6 of 6 later clear images, so it is not a one-day artefact. Radar confirmed some of these areas; the others rest on optical and seasonal evidence. Confidence measures how strong the evidence for real surface change is; it does not identify the cause or who did it.

How it was measured

SCOPE used Sentinel-2 optical imagery at 10 m, cloud-masked and combined over each period, Sentinel-1 radar as an independent check , and the same season in earlier years so normal seasonal change is not reported as real change. The analysis took 25 seconds.

Now try it on a place you know

If SCOPE is right about somewhere you know well, you can trust it somewhere you do not. 5 scans a day, free, no card.

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