Weekly Report - 24 May 2012 (WR-12-20)

Informal gold mining in Peru is not only being targeted as a threat to the environment and a source of fiscal evasion but also as a major illegal industry that generates more revenues than cocaine. At a recent symposium in Lima a proposal was floated to create a special body, similar to the anti-drugs commission Devida, to coordinate the efforts to ‘formalise’ that activity, currently dispersed among several government agencies.