New York: Global demand for gold is putting some of the most remote and pristine tropical forests at risk, especially in South America, a study published in Environmental Research Letters shows.

Most of the deforestation for mining occurred after 2007, when gold demand increased following the financial crisis as investors sought a safe haven for their money.

Around 1,680 sq. km of rainforest south of Mexico was lost to mostly illegal and artisanal gold mining from 2001 to 2013, the study conducted by University of Puerto Rico researchers found. Most of the deforestation for mining occurred after 2007, when gold demand increased following the financial crisis as investors sought a safe haven for their money.

Forest clearance for gold mining has been concentrated in four main areas — the moist forests of French Guiana and nearby countries, the Tapajós–Xingú region of the Brazilian Amazon, Magdalena Valley-Urabá in Colombia and the Southwest Amazon in Peru.

The total amount of forest lost wasn’t huge—at the 1,600 sites mapped, only about 650 square miles of tropical moist forest was lost to mining, the team found. That’s a relatively slow pace compared with other deforestation causes. Brazil, for instance, lost about 400 square km (155 square miles) of Amazonian forest to loggers and farmers in just one month last year.