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The discovery of one of the largest mercury seizures in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities.

Peru's customs agency, SUNAT, seized four metric tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima's port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA).

Gunshots echoed through La Pampa as rival gangs armed with military-grade weapons battled for control of the notorious gold mining town in the Peruvian Amazon.

Images seen by Context showed dozens of armed men storming the jungle town as miners ducked for cover and shopkeepers hid behind shutters, with at least five men lying dead after the shootout last month.

Indigenous and riverine communities in the Loreto region of the Peruvian Amazon have "chronic exposure" to mercury, according to a new study by the Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation at Wake Forest University in the United States.

The test results released this month show nearly 80% of the people tested late last year had levels of mercury far above the safe limits in six communities on the banks of the Nanay and Pintuyacu rivers, from where Context reported in October last year. 

As gold prices surge, so has illegal mining in South America, destroying forests and polluting rivers, but women in eastern Peru are pioneering technology that does not rely on toxic mercury and even produces more of the precious metal.

In parts of Madre de Dios, one of Peru's most biodiverse regions, illegal mining has left a desert-like landscape strewn with lifeless craters and poisoned rivers.

A motorboat carves through the Upper Tapajós River in Brazil's Amazon, carrying gun-toting public security forces and an inspector from the Indigenous affairs agency FUNAI. Two more boats follow with federal special forces.

They patrol a corner of the vast Munduruku Indigenous Reserve for over two hours as part of an enforcement operation to ensure illegal miners have not returned to sites deep in the jungle.

Thousands of gold miners camped out in the centre of the Peruvian capital and blocked the main highway this week to protest government plans to that experts say fuels extortion and human trafficking.

Peru's government presented a bill to Congress last week aimed at fast-tracking the formalisation of up to half a million informal and illegal miners in the country by replacing an existing registry known by its Spanish acronym REINFO.

The Nanay River meanders through Peru's Amazon jungle supplying water to Iquitos city's half a million inhabitants.

But there are growing concerns about the quality of this water as illegal gold mining, which uses the toxic metal mercury to extract gold, has surged in Peru's Amazon region since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Changes to a key forestry law in Peru are opening up its Amazon rainforest - the second largest expanse after Brazil - to more deforestation for agriculture and making it easier for illicit industries like logging and mining to prosper, researchers warn. 

Congress made changes to the Forest and Wildlife Law 31973 in December, which pardon all historical illegal deforestation of areas cleared for agriculture before January 2024 and undo any future legal constraints.

About 25 isolated Indigenous groups - an increasing rarity around the world - live in Peru's Amazon rainforest, but a draft law could strip them of rights over their land, advocates say.

Indigenous peoples living in isolation and early stages of contact in Peru - known as PIACI - are protected under a 2006 law that prohibits contact with them, primarily for their wellbeing, not least because their immune systems often have little resistance to common illnesses.

The waters of the Xingu River below the Belo Monte hydropower dam, in Brazil's Amazon, used to flood the river's forested islands during the rainy season, allowing fish to glide among the trees and gorge on fallen fruit.

But since the controversial dam opened six years ago, the forests no longer flood consistently, and the fish have lost a key place to feed and spawn, local people say.