(CNN) The Southern Peruvian Amazon is considered one of the most important cradles of biodiversity left on Earth. Deforestation in 2018 eclipsed the previous record high from 2017, when an estimated 22,635 acres of forest were felled by gold miners, according to MAAP. This means that over two years, gold mining decimated the equivalent of more than 34,000 American football fields of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, according to MAAP's analysis. Most of the gold mining is being done illegally in protected areas in and around the region known as Madre de Dios, according to Luis Fernandez, the executive director of CINCIA . Satellite imagery provided by MAAP shows the growing damage that gold mining has caused between 2017, left, and 2018 in the La Pampa region of Peru.

Source: CNN February 08, 2019 11:21 UTC