Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon - Cedla

119 Pages·2013·2.83 MB·English

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Small-scale gold mining increasingly causes environmental problems and ie
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socio-political conflicts in the Amazon. Uncontrolled use of mercury and C
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deforestation threaten the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the forest, and e
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the health of the miners and their families. Tensions arise when miners er Leontien Cremers
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work in territories without licenses and governments have no control , Ju
over the activities and the revenues generated. The scale of the problems d Judith Kolen
has increased in the past few years due to the high price of gold and ith
the introduction of more mechanized mining techniques. At the same K Marjo de Theije (eds)
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time, the activity offers a livelihood opportunity to many hundreds of Le
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thousands of people. , m
In this book the Contributors give a situation analysis of small-scale gold arJo C u a d e r n o s d e l C e d l a
mining in five countries in the wider Amazon region. This work comes d
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from a base line study that is part of the GOMIAM project (Small-scale t
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gold mining and social conflict in the Amazon: Comparing states, e
environments, local populations and miners in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, (iJe
Peru and Suriname). GOMIAM develops a comparative understanding ed Small-Scale Gold Mining
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of socio-political and environmental conflicts related to small-scale gold )
mining in the Amazon. The chapters describe the different social, political
in the Amazon
and environmental situations in each country, including technical,
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economic, legal, historical, and policy aspects of the small-scale gold
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mining sector. a
ll- The Cases of Bolivia, Brazil,
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The contributors are Helcias Ayala, Mourik Bueno de Mesquita, Felix c
a Colombia, Peru and Suriname
Carrillo, Mary Chávez Quijada, Leontien Cremers, Gerardo Damonte, le
Celine Duijves, José De Echave Cáceres, Adhemir Flores, Beatriz Helena G
Giraldo, Marieke Heemskerk, Judith Kolen, Leyla Marcela Martinez, o
Armin Mathis, Víctor Hugo Pachas, Ton Salman, Mariana Sarmiento, ld
Carola Soruco, Ana Cristina Soto, Marjo de Theije, Alexandra Uran. All M
are involved in the GOMIAM project as researchers. They have different in
disciplinary backgrounds, which is reflected in the broad scope of the in
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ethnographic, economic, technical and political data collected in this book. in
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CedLa conducts social science and history research, offers a master’s d
programme on the societies and cultures of Latin America, and has a e 26
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specialized library for the study of the region. The Centre also publishes
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monographs and a journal on Latin America.
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isbn 978-90-70280-18-5 / nur 747
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SMALL-SCALE GOLD M INING IN THE AMAZON

S - G M
MALL SCALE OLD INING
A
IN THE MAZON
THE CASES OF BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA,
PERU AND SURINAME
LEONTIEN CREMERS, JUDITH KOLEN,
MARJO DE THEIJE (EDS)
Cuadernos del CEDLA Editorial Board
Michiel Baud
Pitou van Dijck
Arij Ouweneel

Cuadernos del CEDLA, No. 26
ISBN 978-90-70280-18-5
NUR 947 Internationale ontwikkelingsstudies

© 2013 CEDLA, Amsterdam

Centre for Latin American Studies and Documentation
Keizersgracht 397
1016 EK Amsterdam
The Netherlands

www.cedla.uva.nl
www.cedla.uva.nl/50_publications/cuadernos.html

printed by HAVEKA, de grafische partner, Alblasserdam
AAcknowledgements
GOMIAM is a comprehensive research project on small-scale gold
mining and social conflict in the Amazon region. In GOMIAM, over
twenty researchers from six different countries contribute to the col-
lection and analysis of data on the role of nation states, local popula-
tions, miners, migrants, pollution of the natural environment, poli-
cies on different levels and conflicting claims to the access to the
gold, in the social conflicts found in the Amazonian small-scale gold
mining sector. This book is a first result of their efforts. GOMIAM is
funded by the WOTRO program CoCooN: Conflict and Cooperation
in Natural Resources in Development Countries.
We would like to thank CEDLA for enabling the presentation of
these first research results from the GOMIAM project in the form of
this Cuaderno publication. We thank all miners, the people in the
mining communities, the service providers, the government repre-
sentatives, mining companies and non-governmental organizations
and all other people involved in gold mining in the Amazon, for their
willingness to share their knowledge, experiences and concerns with
the GOMIAM researchers. We expect this publication will contribute
to a greater understanding of small-scale gold mining in the Ama-
zon. We hope that more knowledge and awareness will be of help in
the development of adequate policies for the social and environmen-
tal regulation of the sector and the improvement of the livelihood
situations of small-scale gold miners and local communities in Boliv-
ia, Brazil, Suriname, Colombia and Peru and the rest of the Amazon.

| VII
CONTENTS

NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS IX

Chapter 1. SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING IN THE AMAZON 1
Leontien Cremers and Marjo de Theije

Chapter 2. COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION AND BALSA MINING 17
IN BOLIVIA
Ton Salman, Felix Carrillo and Carola Soruco

Chapter 3. FORMALIZED SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING IN THE 31
BRAZILIAN AMAZON: AN ACTIVITY SURROUNDED BY
INFORMALITY
Judith Kolen, Marjo de Theije and Armin Mathis

Chapter 4. CHARACTERISTICS AND CHALLENGES OF SMALL- 46
SCALE GOLD MINING IN COLOMBIA
Mariana Sarmiento, Beatriz Helena Giraldo, Hel-
cias Ayala, Alexandra Uran, Ana Cristina Soto and
Leyla Martinez

Chapter 5. SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING AND SOCIAL AND EN- 68
VIRONMENTAL CONFLICT IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
Gerardo Damonte, Mourik Bueno de Mesquita,
Víctor Hugo Pachas, Mary Chávez Quijada, Ad-
hemir Flores and José De Echave Cáceres

Chapter 6. SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING AND CONFLICT IN SU- 85
RINAME
Marieke Heemskerk and Celine Duijves