Twenty-five AGA members travelled to Puerto Maldonado in Madre de Dios, Peru to witness firsthand the realities of Amazon gold mining. There, we met with Pure Earth, Alliance for Responsible Mining, and members of the Women’s Mining Network of Madre de Dios — including AMATAF — who are advancing mercury-free artisanal and small-scale gold mining while working to restore and reforest degraded land.

The experience created a rare opportunity to engage deeply with diverse perspectives and lived experiences, to imagine what less destructive mining could look like, and to better understand the immense complexity of these challenges from every angle.

Together in the Amazon, we were confronted by the rapid and relentless expansion of mining activity. From the massive zone of deforestation from gold mining that we saw from the flight to the countless informal mines we saw along the Madre de Dios river, the urgency of our collective work was impossible to ignore: environmental devastation unfolding alongside profound human need, groundbreaking innovation existing in tension with the powerful forces of global demand.

There are no simple answers. But there is strength in collective action — in people and communities working in alignment to uphold human dignity while protecting one of the biodiverse places on Earth.