The high demand for gold, which has not dropped below $1,500 per troy ounce since the onset of the Covid pandemic, has led to an increase in illegal gold mining and gold exports in Ecuador. This activity is facilitated by factors such as high levels of informality and poverty, the presence of mineral deposits in remote areas, and the existence of illegal mining networks in neighbouring Colombia and Peru. In the absence of state enforcement, the Indigenous A'i Cofán people of Sinangoe, Ecuador, have mobilised against this illegal gold mining. The group patrols a territory of 243 square miles, stretching from the Andean foothills down into the Amazon rainforest. They are on the lookout for alluvial gold miners who invade their land with heavy machinery and tear up the banks of their sacred river, the Aguarico. Last year, Ecuador's highest court suspended 52 formal mining concessions on their land, which borders the Cayambe-Coca national park. However, illegal gold mining has grown significantly in Ecuador's Amazon. As of February 2023, it had devoured 1,660 hectares of forest. In January, Ecuador's president, Guillermo Lasso, declared the activity to be a threat to national security. At the same time, the formal sector has grown, with the country's mining exports growing 34% between January and November 2022 to $2.52 billion.