Iquitos – The Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos has issued an urgent appeal for immediate action against the devastating increase in illegal mining in the Nanay River basin, in an official statement released on August 17.
The Nanay is the main source of drinking water for more than half a million people living in the city of Iquitos, as well as for numerous Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
The statement expresses deep concern over findings from a recent study based on satellite imagery. Of the 1,518 mining-dredging sites identified since 2017 on 13 rivers in the department of Loreto, almost half have appeared since the beginning of 2025. Some 70% of the total are located on the Nanay, the ancestral territory of the Ikitu people. The Nanay river has recorded the sharpest increase in dredging activity, followed by the Marañón, with 108 new sites since 2025, and the Tigre, with 67. At the same time, deforestation along the banks of the Nanay is advancing, linked to alluvial mining activities.
Quoting the Scriptures – “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” – the Vicariate stresses that “to profane creation is to attack God himself.” The document also recalls the address Pope Francis delivered to the peoples of the Amazon in Puerto Maldonado in January 2018, when he called for “breaking with the historical paradigm that views Amazonia as an inexhaustible source of supplies.” On that occasion, the Pope denounced the “environmental contamination caused by illegal mining” and the further “devastation of life” that accompanies it, including “human trafficking, slave labor and sexual abuse.”
As the “People of God in the Amazon,” the Apostolic Vicariate points out that the granting of mining concessions violates environmental rights and existing regulations, including regional ordinances declaring the Nanay a zone excluded from mining activities.
The increase in mining activity, the statement adds, is generating violence and threats to national security and requires an integrated response from the national government and regional authorities. The impact of mining, particularly mercury contamination, is also harming public health and the food security of local communities.
The Apostolic Vicariate therefore calls on the competent authorities – particularly the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute , the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense – to take three urgent measures: “the immediate declaration of nullity of any metallic or non-metallic mining concession granted by INGEMMET in this basin”; “the definitive eradication of illegal dredges and illegal mining facilities” that continue to destroy ecosystems and threaten the health and safety of the Nanay population; and “effective control” of machinery and materials entering the basin by river or through “well-known” clandestine routes.
The deputies and senator of the department of Loreto are urged to promote legislative action banning all mining concessions on Amazonian waterways. The statement also calls on Congress and the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic to conduct a thorough investigation into INGEMMET’s operations, in light of concerns over the admission and processing of mining claims in areas subject to protection measures.
Reaffirming its willingness to cooperate in developing legal proposals to address the emergency and defend our “common home,” the Vicariate concludes by recalling Pope Francis’ words: “The defense of the land has no other purpose than the defense of life.”
The document is signed by Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas Cardo, Apostolic Vicar of Iquitos, together with 19 priests and parish and pastoral leaders, the rector of the Inter-Vicariate Amazonian Seminary, the Human Rights Commission and the Vicariate’s Water Ministry.
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