This is not normal. Inside the illegal gold trade. Profits are enormous destruction, immediate. But, what happens to that gold once it leaves peru . We have two of these gold chains in front of you. Just by looking at the chain itself, can you tell if either of these are dirty . What would be your quess . Im phil torez, im an entomologist. I do much of my research in this territory. Theyve tested the water theyve tested the sediment. Ill share my findings with marita davison. Shes an environmental biologist. What size of an area are we looking at here . And, Lindsay Moran, a former cia analyst. One of them was at macys, the other was at tiffany. So now, what can you say . Thats our team, now lets do some science. Hey guys welcome to techknow im phil torres joined by Lindsay Moran and marita davison. As you guys know, when i do my science its all spiders and butterflies. But when im in the field i love going to peru. The rainforest there is amazing but the last time i was there and i looked out the window flying in and i noticed a huge section of forest was missing. You have to be talking about the devastating impacts of gold mining, of illegal gold mining thats been hitting peru, my home country bolivia, and the entire region really its been happening for the past few decades. Phil since you first brought this story to techknow the question weve been asking is, can anything be done to stop the destruction of the rainforest, or even restore it . Those are the Big Questions and thanks to a team we joined on the ground there in peru were starting to get some answers. And there is hope. The amazon rainforest. Legendary, primeval, its home to 10 percent of the worlds known species. Its ancient trees remove millions of tons of Carbon Dioxide a year from the atmosphere. And its moisture may impact rainfall as far away as the pacific northwest. But the soil underneath some of the rainforest is laced with gold. And each year an illegal gold rush is turning thousands of acres of this natural wonder into a toxic wasteland. Techknow has been documenting the devastation since january of 2015. As we followed the science our investigation has taken us from the carnegie Institutions Department of global ecology in stanford. You calculate the carbon based on the structure. To the heart of peruvian rainforest. See the color of this river . That is not normal. Its a sign that illegal mining is taking place upriver. This is Tambopata National reserve in Madre De Dios the mother of god. Its one of the worlds most diverse ecosytems and one of perus most threatened. This is lapampa in the buffer zone of the tambopata reserve. Its been devastated by illegal mining. But a Small Community of artisanal miners known as the manuanis are hoping to bring the rainforest back to la pampa. They are working with peruvian ecologist Francisco Roman. The only way into their camp is on the back of a motorbike, on a flooded dirt path. Weve been driving for miles into what should be pristine rainforest. But instead it looks like this. Skeletal remains hint at the forest that used to thrive here. Behind me i can hear a macaw calling and i think theres a nest up in that tree. Thats the problem with these mines as they deplete this area, they just keep pushing further and further into the forest and the wildlife has nowhere to go. But can this land ever return to the pristine rainforest it once was . The prospect is daunting, work that has never been done before with devastation this complete. Sabina valdez is the president of the association of miners at the river manuani. Skyrocketing gold prices have pitted small artisanal miners like the manuanis against larger illegal operations run by outsiders. But these miners have a stake in the land. In 2013 they began working with Francisco Roman and a group of government and research facilities. The goal to find out how to grow new life in the soil mining leaves behind. What do miners do to the earth when they do mining . The process turns the soil into 95 sand almost deviod of all organic matter. This may be the biggest challenge scientist face. Another problem is miners often contaminate the soil with mercury. They use it to bind those tiny flecks of gold into a clump. Tropical ecologist Luis Fernandez is the director the carnegie amazon mercury ecosystem project. The gold here is not very concentrated. Its only about 2 grams per ton of rock. Instead of manually concentrating that tiny amount of gold in a awful lot of rock you take some of the sediment, some water, and a little bit of mercury, and you mix it up. Where else does this mercury end up . Because the mercury is being dumped into the rivers and lakes, it then gets into the food chain, mercury can concentrate in sediments, and be absorbed into the plants, so, in areas that were former mining zones, there is a lot of questions about whats next. So this whole area was more recently mined . Yes, yes. Its those questions francisco and his team hope to answer. They showed us how they have begun to test what can grow in degraded land like this. They begin by planting a species known as pioneers. They are fast growing plants natural to the area that can survive in tough circumstances. We are looking at an experiment with fast growing tree species. We have 3 levels of fertilization, the control, no fertilizer, the diluted treatment, and biofertilizer applied pure. This line represents the frontier between 2 treatments the control plot and the pure treatment you can see the difference in growth. Wow. So tropical plants normally dont need fertilizer because its already in the soil, but these are getting it and they are growing more and these are not and they are barely growing . Ya, ya because the soil is very very poor. In the first 6 months of the experiment plants treated with pure biofertilizer survived at higher rate and grew almost 3 times the height as those without fertilizer. Roman is also studying whether microorganisms in biofertilizer will prevent mercury from contaminating plants. The hypothesis is in the pure treatment where was applied biofertilizer, maybe microorganisms immobilize mercury in the soil and plants are free of mercury. But hope comes with a high price. Pure biofertilizer is not cheap it costs at least a thousand dollars more per 2 and a half acre plot to treat plants with pure biofertilizer. The idea here is life begets life this isnt just planting trees this is planting the basis for an ecosystem to come back fully to this region. Can this new life beget a rainforest . Under the best of circumstances it will take decades. And the lure of gold is still drawing miners to the area. But the people here hope they are planting more than seedlings they hope to plant an idea that will grow. Coming up can miners protect the environment and their way of life . We want to hear what you think about these stories. Join the conversation by following us on twitter and at aljazeera. Com techknow. He was electroshocked and tortured. Decades of corruption abuse, and torture, by chicago police. You think people make a distinction between cia, black ops sites, verses torturing a thirteen year old kid from the southside . People realize that torture is torture. Lisa fletcher brings you an in depth report chicago torture only on Al Jazeera America the peruvian rainforest covers about 60 of the country. But the devastation caused by illegal gold mining is not just a peruvian problem its also a problem for the rest of us. Why . Because these trees store carbon more than 6 and a half billion metric tons. Thats more than 3 times the amount of Carbon Dioxide released by the United States in a year. This is the carnegie airborne observatory. Director greg asner flew the one of a kind laboratory in the sky over the peruvian rainforest. His goal to create a revolutionary new map of peru one that shows how much carbon the country sequesters and where its stored. He showed off some of his work to techknows marita davison. Trees are the best Storage Units of this thing called carbon. Trees take up Carbon Dioxide and they store the carbon out of the Carbon Dioxide into their tissues. This is how a stretch of the peruvian rainforest appears from the plane to the naked eye. But this is how the observatorys unique 3d Laser Imaging system sees the forest. What size of an area are we looking at here . This is two and a half three acres. And this is what you use to calculate say carbon stocks . Ya, this is critical to understanding how much carbon is stored in the forest because the principal determinant is the volume of the forest. This map shows perus carbon geography. The areas in red store the most carbon. One of the most carbon dense regions of peru is Madre De Dios. Now, if carbon its not in the trees, where is it . Its in the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide. Destruction of rainforest from illegal mining is a global problem when it comes climate change. In Madre De Dios, its personal to people who depend on the land for survival as phil torres found out firsthand. On the shores of the Madre De Dios river we met with a community of Indigenous People called tres islas. They are struggling with a choice between preserving old ways of life and saving their land from the destruction. These piles of gravel are damage left behind by illegal miners outsiders who invaded the area as gold prices soared. Sergio perea ponce is president of tres islas. He is also a gold miner as was his father before him. I traveled with him and his wife by boat to a mining camp they are building. They want to create a Sustainable Way to mine that can be a model for small artisanal miners. Tres islas is located in a 1900 square mile corridor that the government has designated as the only area in Madre De Dios where miners can operate legally if they qualify. The idea is to keep miners out of protected rainforest like this and regulate how they operate. Perea ponce hopes the government will legalize their operation. One of the ways these miners hope to qualify for legalization is by working with Francisco Roman to reforest areas damaged by mining. Their job is made easier by the fact that parts of the forest are still standing. This lake is an example of whats possible when some forest is left intact. Eight years ago it was an active mine. Now its got life. There are caman around. There are giant river otters around here. Theyve tested the water theye tested the sediment and found no detectible levels of mercury. The question remains whats in the fish . But perea ponce hopes in the future he can prevent mercury contamination with this a concrete unit to store waste liquid from the mining process. Despite these changes for these people it is a waiting game to see if its enough for the government to grant them legal status. Its very difficult to get formal and stay formal. Its a tough marriage. Ernesto raez luna is a former adviser to Perus Ministry of environment. We know that many people engage in illegal extraction will not be able to become formal. You need to provide alternatives and also training so they can do something else. In tres islas some members are trying other ways of making a living like harvesting brazil nuts from the giant castana trees that grow in the peruvian amazon. But with brazil nuts averaging a few dollars per pound and gold prices well over a thousand dollars an ounce will efforts like this be enough to put a dent in illegal mining . There is hope because humans can do great things, and the great things that we do dont need to be just destructive things. But the key element is knowledge. We need to know in order to act. Coming up did the gold in your ring play a part in this kind of destruction . We have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live. Gold. Sought after for its beauty. But at what price . How does a buyer know the real cost of a gold ring . These are the rings. These are the rings. This is what we show our customers when they come in for an appointment. At brilliant earth, Beth Gerstein wants her customers to feel confident that a ring doesnt come at the expense of human rights and devastated rainforests. I didnt want a symbol of love from my husband to be associated with such atrocities. Now when you first started was it just about conflict diamonds or did you talk gold . Well, the first issue was about blood diamonds and then we started to learn more about the issues, in the gold industry gold mining is one of the dirtiest industries for mining. The gold you see in these rings is all recycled. This is one of our more popular styles, its our willow ring. And this is gold. It is gold, its from recycled gold. Its rerefined and identical quality. Brilliant earth is one of more than 100 retailers who have made a commitment to source their gold responsibly by signing on to earthworks no dirty gold campaign. What is dirty gold . Dirty gold is gold that was extracted at a cost to people and the planet that is unacceptable. That may have come at the price of human rights, pristine forests and clean water. What percentage of gold in the us is dirty gold . Thats a great question. I think we have to assume that most of the gold thats newly mined and sold in the Us Jewelry Stores is irresponsibly produced, because we dont have that independent certificate that assures us otherwise. To grasp why its difficult to know if gold is clean or dirty, you have to understand the twisted route it can travel from mine to retailer. Take illegally mined gold from Madre De Dios for example. For a piece like this the first stop is often here in puerto maldonado, the capitol of Madre De Dios. All along this area weve been told is the place where people will buy and sell gold, maybe sent it off to lima or other places. According to a report by the fair labor non profit verite this illegal gold is laundered by middlemen, then sold to jewelry makers in lima and refineries as far away as the United States and switzerland. There, the gold is melted down and purified before being sold again. Often retailers know little about the origin of the gold they sell, as techknow found out when it visit the jewelry district in los angeles. So i just talked to all the vendors inside there and none of them could tell me where their gold came out of the earth, in fact one said if someone did tell us, dont believe them. So we have 2 of these gold chains in front of you. Just by looking can you tell if either of these are dirty. What would be your guess . The only way i would be able to tell you is if this box here had a label and it told me about the provenance of the gold. One of them was at macys, the other was at tiffany. So now, what can you say . I can tell you of these two companies, tiffany and company has signed on to the ndg pledge. Macy has not and has been asked too many times. Tiffany and company can really tell you about the antecedents of this gold, where as macys cannot. 10 years ago tiffany and Company Became the first retailer to sign the no dirty gold pledge. Most of its raw gold is from recycled sources, the bulk of the rest comes from a single mine in utah. They made that supply chain shorter. They found a way to make it more transparent and to have more control over where they are getting their metal from. Tell me more about traceability. How challenging is that . For us thats one of the hardest things we had to encounter when we first started. Wed ask our gold manufacturers, where does the gold come from is it recycled, and theyd say, well, im not exactly sure. Once they see theres a Market Opportunity they start asking the important questions and making sure they meet our standards and its traceable. Macys is the 5th largest jewelry retailer in the United States. The company turned down techknows request for an oncamera interview. But in an emailed response a spokesman said while we agree in spirit with the principles of no dirty gold, significant problems exist with gold and mineral traceability and verification. We support the creation of an independent and universallyaccepted standard for certifying gold and other minerals. What do you think . Is there a need for Something Like that . Theres a need for Something Like that which is currently being created the initiative for responsibly mining assurance is currently in development to provide that kind of label. Macys needs to be part of that creation. Now, what can consumers out there do when they hear about dirty gold problems . They can vote with their wallet. So asking the right questions. What should they ask . Where does the gold come from . What are the practices actually surrounding the product that im buying . Questions that may help preserve pristine rainforest like this one of earths most vital treasures. Ok guys i brought in a few gold pieces my grandmother gave me and these have been in my family for a long time, they were obtained in the bolivian rainforest, and after this piece, phil youve got me wondering, by what methods are these gold pieces obtained . Is there any way for me to know . I will say considering its from bolivia and that it will probably was one of the artisinal style gold mining it isnt quite as damaging but im sure they did use quite a bit of mercury with it. Lindsay, we asked you to look at this issue from a Law Enforcement perspective what did you find . Well, its a challenge in some ways its very similar to the war on drugs which ultimately was a failed war. You have an area where there are very porous borders, where theres rampant corruption within Law Enforcement, and quite frankly this issue is not at the forefront of the International Intelligence community. Even though, we see when there is destruction, when there is environmental degredataion ultimately that leads to unrest that does impact our National Security but nobody sees it that way now, its just not a top priority. Out of any of the stories weve done here on techknow, this was absolutely the most personal one to me. Ive worked in the area of peru for a couple years now and discovered new species there, we thought the species i discovered could go extinct for gold, that was pretty heartbreaking to me. So i guarantee you guys were going to stay on top of this story, will let you know of any updates. Thats it for this episode of techknow, be sure to check us out next time. Dive deep behind these stories and go behind the scenes at aljazeera. Com techknow. Follow our expert contributors on twitter, facebook, Instagram Google and more. A Global Climate crisis two feet of Sea Level Rise is projected. Threatening americas coastline youll see water in the streets without rain. 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