The wind blowing on my face, the birds whistling in the distance, my dogs running and playing, the peace and tranquility; everything is beautiful and perfect, until... a horrible noise disturbs every fiber of my being. The thunderous sound of a chainsaw cutting those wonderful living things that produce much of the oxygen we breathe often disturbs my walks with my dogs and siblings in the woods of my district, San Agustin. Although I try to ignore the noise to enjoy my walks, it is impossible not to pay attention to it. Moreover, these noises have become very frequent in recent months; I now hear them on most of my walks to the forests, an indication that logging is intensifying in my district.

The woods of San Agustin

Deforestation in San Agustin

In Peru, there are approximately 200,000 artisanal miners, but only 57,000 are registered, which means that the majority of Peruvian artisanal miners are informal (they do not have any environmental impact assessment plan or restoration plan, do not pay taxes, and violate labor and safety regulations). All this is due to the lack of legislation on Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) that existed in Peru for many years, which allowed the number of informal artisanal miners to increase dramatically. And despite the authorities' belated efforts to enact laws to help them formalize and sanction them, the current lack of oversight and control by these authorities has not contributed to the decrease in this number. In my region, Junin, there are only 15 formal artisanal miners, 1054 who have started their formalization process, and a large number of informal miners who are not registered, including the artisanal miners who extract clay and intensify deforestation in my district, San Agustin.

San Agustin is a district well known for the large amount of clay it possesses, which is why part of its population—and the poorest—is dedicated to the extraction of this non-metallic mineral to make and sell bricks. Artisanal miners cut down the eucalyptus trees that predominate in the area to extract the clay, which is then used to make bricks that will be sold for one nuevo sol (US $0.26) each. Once the miners exploit the clay-rich areas, they abandon them, and these areas are left without any restoration. Beautiful areas full of trees become large hollows. Every time I have visited the clay extraction areas of San Agustin, I have seen that the artisanal miners work without any type of control and in terrible conditions. Not only do they threaten the environment, but also their lives. They work without personal protective equipment, without tools in good condition, and without safety protocols. 

Clay extraction. Huayta, F. (2013). Extracción de la arcilla. PDF Descargar libre. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://docplayer.es/80851761-Universidad-nacional-del-centro-del-peru.html

Boy making bricks in San Agustin. Peru21. (2012, December 17). Junín: Rescatan a 55 niños que trabajaban en ladrilleras. Peru21. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://peru21.pe/lima/junin-rescatan-55-ninos-trabajaban-ladrilleras-59523-noticia/

Boy making bricks. Ladrilleras explotan Menores de Edad en junín. Inforegion.pe Agencia de Prensa Ambiental. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://www.inforegion.pe/147967/ladrilleras-explotan-menores-de-edad-en-junin/

Villager making bricks. Impactos socioambientales por la fabricación de ladrillos en Huancayo - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figura-N1-Ladrillera-en-la-ciudad-de-Huancayo_fig1_287844809 

Artisanal clay mining has caused the felling of hundreds of trees in San Agustin for many years, and no authority has cared. No one supervises or controls it. It is as if this activity does not exist, as if these miners do not exist. This shows once again how the poorest population, the one that has no voice, is forgotten by the authorities. These artisanal miners do not need sanctions; they are people who live in poverty and extreme poverty, the poorest population in San Agustin who barely have enough to eat. The sale of the bricks they make from the clay they mine is their only source of income, and the authorities can not take that away from them. What these artisanal miners need is help and support from the authorities so that they can be trained and formalized. This is something that the artisanal miners can not do alone; they need their authorities, those who during their election campaigns promised to fight for a better quality of life for their people, those who promised not to abandon us and who are now doing so.

Many of the environmental problems also expose the social problems that exist in a community. And generally, both types of problems are closely related; if the authorities address and solve one, they also solve the other. All that is required is a real willingness and desire to help, which the authorities should have.

Huayta, F. (2013). Llenado de la gavera con un ligero golpe. PDF Descargar libre. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://docplayer.es/80851761-Universidad-nacional-del-centro-del-peru.html

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