Gold diggers

The fight to protect forests from mining

- Sarah Johnson

About an hour before dawn, Lt Mahi Landry and his team of rangers find the illegal goldmine they've been looking for deep in Tene forest, in south-central Ivory Coast.

It has been raining heavily for most of the night and the only light is from the beams of a few torches. The team, accompanied by the Guardian, has to dodge felled branches, taking care not to fall into holes that have been dug in the earth. Cigarette packets, empty bottles of alcohol and the odd shoe are strewn across the forest floor.

A couple of rangers start uncovering a pit that has been sealed with wood overlaid with material and sand. They throw a rock into the hole and it takes about three seconds to hit the bottom. "It's deep, probably about 25 metres," said Landry. "That would have taken about two to three weeks to dig."