From the rugged highlands straddling the border of Bolivia and Peru to the vast plateaus of Burkina Faso in West Africa, small-scale artisanal gold mining (ASGM) is happening around the globe. It’s a practice whereby miners work independently to extract the gold that provides their livelihoods. While this vocation serves as the backbone of local economies where gold is found, it has repercussions for the miners and the planet.
Mercury contamination, among other hazards, is a major threat to miners’ health and the ecosystems where they work. Past attempts to address the dangers of ASGM have focused on technological innovations but have failed to address the practice’s social and environmental impacts, much less take seriously the interests of diverse stakeholders. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) offers an alternative solution to this complex problem by providing a framework for collaborative action that considers AGSMs economic importance while simultaneously addressing the harm it causes.
Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration
EcoAg is working with Conservation International, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Conservation Strategy Fund to deliver a webinar series on integrating ILM as part of the planetGOLD program of the Global Environment Facility. The goal is to provide local actors in Latin America and Africa who are working to solve this problem with the knowledge and resources they need to implement ILM and address ASGMs impacts. The UN Environment Programme leads the effort in collaboration with Conservation International, the UN Development Programme, the UN Industrial Development Organization, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Focusing primarily on Africa and Latin America, they aim to reduce mercury contamination and formalize the ASGM industry to bring in health and safety regulations.
“EcoAg kicked off the webinar series with an in-depth, thought-provoking session on tools for advancing jurisdictional and landscape approaches to reduce the use of mercury in artisanal small-scale gold mining,” said Janet Edmond, senior director of peace and development at Conservation International. “Facilitators from EcoAg demonstrated deep expertise and showcased practical examples of ways to address ASGM in the complex contexts that project teams face, helping spark new ways of thinking about potential solutions.”
An Ongoing Series of Webinars
The partnership plans to host eight webinars, five of which will be led by EcoAg. During the first webinar, held on February 2nd, EcoAg introduced participants to the basics of ILM. In early April, EcoAg presented on stakeholder engagement. Over the next several months, the three following webinars will focus on integrated landscape finance, landscape action planning, and inclusive landscape governance. The remaining three webinars will be led by the Rainforest Alliance, Conservation International, and the Conservation Strategy Fund. Attendees came from various backgrounds, including NGOs, planetGOLD, local governments, and gold-mining technology. After the webinar series, project partners will move to the next phase, which includes collaborative consultations with planetGOLD countries to build on what they learned from the webinars. Partners will identify areas for more in-depth and participatory trainings on selected ILM-related topics in the context of ASGM in their landscapes.
During the first webinars, African and Latin American participants connected and reflected on how ILM can aid planetGOLD’s work. Through case studies and examples, they were introduced to the five elements of ILM: landscape partnership, shared understanding, vision and planning, taking action, and learning and impact. Facilitators introduced how ASGM can serve as an entry point for forming a landscape partnership that recognizes the diverse interests and concerns of stakeholders. Participants agreed that ILM has the potential to address the issues they have been facing.
“I am thrilled to be working with planetGOLD, Conservation International, and our other partners on this project,” said Max Levy, project manager at EcoAg. “This partnership is particularly exciting because it demonstrates that ILM is useful in contexts beyond the agricultural regions where it has been applied in the past. Addressing the problems that ASGM is causing in communities cannot be done by the mining sector alone; it requires coordinated cooperation with a variety of stakeholders.”
Through this project, local leaders will become more familiar with tools and strategies to take a new approach to solving the problems that face their communities. The solution requires the cross-sectoral collaboration that ILM offers by bringing together miners, community members, conservationists, and other stakeholders to work collaboratively toward a common goal: a healthy, uncontaminated, and prosperous landscape.
