Photographer: Israel Fuguemann

Open Call: The Guardian Project

Sitting in front of an apocalyptic scene, a young man takes some rest after working for almost 24 continuous hours. In front of him lays an illegal gold extraction open-pit mine in Madre de Dios, Peru. Mining in the Peruvian Amazon has caused the deforestation of around 100,000 hectares in recent years, causing terrible damage to the ecosystem; but also in the social environment, because these mines lack all social security measures for the thousands of people who work in them, seduced by the new gold rush.