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Ecotoxicology (2024) 33:506–517
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-024-02741-3
The global challenge of reducing mercury contamination from
artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM): evaluating solutions
using generic theories of change
Allison R. Aldous 1●Tim Tear 2●Luis E. Fernandez 3,4,5
Accepted: 14 February 2024 / Published online: 2 March 2024
© The Author(s) 2024
Abstract
Mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) currently accounts for 37% of the global total,
often affecting tropical regions where regulations, if they exist, are often poorly enforced. Ingestion by people and other
animals damages the nervous, reproductive, and cognitive systems. Despite the efforts of many organizations and
governments to curb mercury releases from ASGM, it is increasing globally. There are many possible interventions, all with
significant complexity and cost. Therefore, we recommend taking an established systematic approach to articulate the current
situation and construct theories of change (ToC) for different possible interventions for any government or organization
trying to solve this problem. Here we present a high-level situation analysis and generic ToC to support a more coordinated
approach that explicitly builds upon previous experience to identify organization- and situation-appropriate engagement on
this issue. We then illustrate the use of these generic models to construct a specific ToC with a policy-focused entry point.
This includes interventions through (1) engagement with the global Minamata Convention on Mercury; (2) support for
existing national laws and policies connected to ASGM and mercury contamination; and (3) engagement of indigenous
people and local communities with governments to meet the governments’legal obligations. By methodically articulating
assumptions about interventions, connections among actions, and desired outcomes, it is possible to create a more effective
approach that will encourage more coordination and cooperation among governments and other practitioners to maximize
their investments and support broad environmental and socio-political outcomes necessary to address this pernicious
problem.
Keywords Mercury contamination ●Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) ●Indigenous people and local
communities (IPLC) ●Theory of Change (ToC) ●Situation model ●Amazon basin
Introduction
Mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold
mining (ASGM) has recently become a global conservation
and human rights challenge in many parts of the world,
negatively impacting both nature and the people closely
reliant on intact ecosystems for nutrition, livelihoods, and
culture. Less than two decades ago, industrial pollution
from power plants was the dominant source of mercury
contamination globally. Today, ASGM accounts for 37% of
all anthropogenic mercury emissions (UNEP UN Environ-
ment Programme (2019)) (Fig. 1).
While estimates vary widely, globally, the artisanal
mining sector is estimated to employ 15–25 million people,
who support more than 148 million dependents, with much
of the mined product being gold (Hilson and Maconachie
*Allison R. Aldous
aaldous@tnc.org
1The Nature Conservancy, Calgary, AB, Canada
2Biodiversity Research Institute, Portland, ME 04103, USA
3Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability, and Department
of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27106,
USA
4Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica, Puerto Maldonado,
Madre de Dios 17000, Perú
5Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science,
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
1234567890();,:
1234567890();,:
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2017; Steckling et al. 2017). This sector produces between
380–870 metric tons of gold annually (Cheng et al. 2023),
accounting for varying amounts of gold supply. For
example, of some of the higher gold-producing countries,
ASGM accounts for two thirds of gold from China, one
third from Peru, and nearly 100% of gold produced in
Colombia (Yoshimura et al. 2021). ASGM also results in
deforestation, habitat destruction, soil degradation,
increased erosion, and channel dewatering, further stressing
fragile ecosystems (Caballero Espejo et al. 2018; Bruno
et al. 2020). ASGM often occurs in tropical regions,
releasing large quantities of mercury to intact and biodi-
verse regions such as the Amazon Basin, Indonesia, and the
Congo Basin (WWF 2018; UNEP UN Environment Pro-
gramme 2019). In South America, ASGM accounts for 83%
of anthropogenic mercury emissions (UNEP UN Environ-
ment Programme 2019).
Mercury is inextricably linked with ASGM. It is used to
extract gold from ore and alluvial sediments, typically
mixed with crushed or milled ore or with alluvial sediments
containing gold to create an amalgam that binds gold par-
ticles to mercury increasing gold recovery rates. Because of
the inefficiencies and low technical character of ASGM, a
high proportion of this mercury is released to the environ-
ment, either as vapor or liquid elemental mercury.
Mercury is highly toxic and can lead to serious health
problems for miners, their families, and nearby commu-
nities (Steckling et al. 2017). A potent neurotoxin, mercury
is listed by the World Health Organization as one of its top
10 chemicals of public health concern (WHO 2020). It
Fig. 1 Global deposition of
mercury from (A) all sources,
and (B) ASGM. Many areas
receive much more significant
mercury deposition (e.g., South
America, Central Africa, and
Southeastern Asia) in
comparison to other areas in the
world (Adapted from the Global
Mercury Assessment, (UNEP
UN Environment Programme
(2019))). Figures reproduced
courtesy of UNEP UN
Environment Programme (2019)
The global challenge of reducing mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold mining. . . 507
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causes cognitive and neurological impairment and is espe-
cially damaging to the developing nervous systems of
children and infants (Basu et al. 2018). Because it can pass
the placental barrier, women of childbearing age are at
particularly high risk of passing the mercury to developing
fetuses, resulting in intergenerational impacts to
communities.
Mercury contamination has been identified as not only a
human health issue but also as a conservation issue.
Because of its ability to biomagnify and bioaccumulate,
mercury concentrations are typically higher in organisms at
higher trophic levels in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosys-
tems (Scheuhammer et al. 2015). Mercury is captured and
concentrated in tropical forest ecosystems (Gerson et al.,
2022) and in tropical aquatic ecosystems altered by mining
(Gerson 2020). Elevated mercury concentrations have been
found in several animal taxa in impacted areas, including
birds (Pisconte et al. 2023–this Special Issue), bats (Mor-
eno-Brush et al. 2016), fish (Barocas et al. 2023), and
insects (Dias dos Santos et al. 2021; Eagles-Smith et al.
2020). Elevated mercury exposure has been found to alter
fish and bird reproductive organs, damage tissues, and result
in decreased animal size and reproductive output (Evers
2018).
Because of its importance as a food source for millions of
people, mercury contamination in fish has garnered parti-
cular interest, as fish consumption is the primary pathway
for mercury exposure to humans (WHO 2021). Mercury
may also be a growing threat to the health of freshwater fish
species, which have declined by 84% since 1970, more than
any other group of species (Harrison et al. 2018). Mercury
contamination can dramatically reduce the reproductive
potential of fish (Depew et al. 2012a,b; Evers et al.
2023–this Special Issue). In addition to fish as a source of
nutrition, many fish species are culturally important to
indigenous people and local communities (Noble et al.
2016).
Although mercury is used in many regulated, legal
industrial processes, its use in the largely informal and
unregulated ASGM sector means that the global economies
supplying mercury to ASGM regions are not well under-
stood (Villar and Schaeffer 2019). In certain countries,
organized crime groups have been discovered using gold
from ASGM to launder money from other illicit activities,
such as drug trafficking, illegal logging, and human and
wildlife trafficking (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
2019; U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement 2019). The involvement of organized crime in
ASGM makes for a mix of human rights abuses, corruption,
and violence (Vallejos et al. 2020). Furthermore, vulnerable
populations are both impacted by ASGM, but may also be
participating in ASGM activities because it can be more
lucrative than other livelihoods.
Due to its informal and unregulated nature, ASGM has
been a subject of concern for governments, environmental
organizations, and human rights advocates. Governments
and civil society organizations have worked to develop
interventions for mercury threat abatement from ASGM that
range widely in scale from local (e.g., mercury-free ASGM
technologies; monitoring contamination) to national (e.g.,
ending the trade of mercury; enforcement of ASGM bans)
to global (e.g., mercury-free gold supply chains). As these
strategies are generally complicated, expensive, and require
long-term commitments, and their impacts are still largely
uncertain, a more careful examination of the issue is needed
to better align and integrate efforts to address this growing
problem more effectively.
Using Theories of Change to develop interventions
for reducing mercury contamination from ASGM
Due to the complex pathways in which mercury enters a
country or contaminates any given area, as well as the many
factors that influence the effectiveness of ASGM interven-
tions, deciding which interventions are most likely to be
impactful presents a multifaceted challenge. Here we argue
that a theory of change (ToC), which is a clear and detailed
explanation of how and why a particular intervention aims
to achieve its intended outcomes and impact, is a powerful
approach for assisting in that decision. It describes a causal
chain of results, referred to as “Impact Pathways,”which
emerge from the activities and outputs of the intervention.
These pathways are based on specific underlying assump-
tions within the context of the situation (Conservation
Measures Partnership 2020; Salafsky et al. 2021).
Theories of change have been used for many years across
many sectors and are recently gaining much wider use and
recognition in the environmental management and con-
servation sector (Salafsky et al. 2021). Among the benefits
are the use of ToC as a tool for facilitating dialogue among
stakeholders, identifying the suite of potential entry points
for different actors, clarifying the possible strategies and
actions needed to implement the strategies, and identifying
possible gaps in logic or missing actions for successful
outcomes. This work is constructed within a framework for
structuring evaluations of effectiveness and impact, a means
for connecting intended actions and interventions to desired
outcomes, and in some cases for evaluating the return-on-
investment of different strategies (Salafsky et al. 2021).
The selection of any intervention operates on the
assumption that, when effectively deployed, the interven-
tion will achieve a desired outcome. In this paper, we
employ a ToC approach to chart results and impacts across
different intervention levels (local, subregional, national,
and transnational) (Conservation Measures Partnership
2020). The goal is to determine how these interventions
508 A. R. Aldous et al.
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might influence a specific outcome—namely, the reduction
of mercury contamination from ASGM.
Salafsky et al. (2021) posit that the development of
generic ToC that can clearly define strategies and present a
template for data and the relationship among actions can be
useful to explore the potential effectiveness of conservation
strategies and develop an evidence base for its effectiveness.
The process of developing generic ToCs should include
describing the enabling conditions and the interventions that
are to be undertaken, and then along this pathway identify
key intermediate results and the ultimate outcomes,
assuming the strategy is implemented effectively. The
intended value of generating this body of work is to create a
“library”that others can benefit from, with the hope that
lessons learned from past efforts can help to advance the
effectiveness of future activities.
This paper presents a first step towards identifying a
generic ToC for working on mercury reduction in ASGM,
with a specific focus on “entry points”for governments and
civil society organizations. Much of the work on ToCs
related to ASGM to date has been part of organizations’
internal program planning, management, and evaluation
efforts, for example, individual country ToCs created as part
of the Global Environment Facility-funded PlanetGOLD
program (GEF 2021). We aim to shed light on some of
these earlier approaches and provide an initial framework
that can be used by future practitioners to better understand
the complexities of mercury in ASGM and accelerate the
development of more effective approaches and strategies to
mitigate its impacts, and ultimately reduce mercury released
into the environment.
The objectives of this paper are to (i) present a high-level
situation analysis of mercury contamination from ASGM to
identify potential entry points and impact pathways for
threat reduction; and (ii) based on this analysis, present
ToCs to explore two approaches to risk reduction: policy
interventions and integrated empowerment of indigenous
people and local communities (IPLC) in policy
implementation.
Methods
In this paper, we followed the guidelines of the Con-
servation Measures Partnership, (2020) and began by
developing a situation analysis to illustrate which aspects
or factors in the current situation proposed interventions
are intending to address. This is done by creating a
situation model, which is a graphical or narrative
description of the system, including the key stakeholders
and influencers, the social, political, and economic dri-
vers, and the biodiversity, human well-being interests, and
ecosystem services impacted (Fig. 2). Construction of the
situation model is often done from right to left, in other
words, by first defining the project scope and vision, then
identifying the direct threats and biophysical factors, and
finally by clarifying the indirect threats and relationships
among them.
From this generic structure of the system, we propose
the identification of “entry points”for engagement as this
presents an important, scale-dependent distinction that is
necessary for identifying appropriate ASGM interven-
tions. We define an “entry point”as a high-level inter-
vention, and a “strategy”as an intervention at a more
specific level. For example, entry points can be the
introduction of technology or enacting or enforcing pol-
icy, with associated strategies being to introduce a specific
mercury-free ASGM method and equipment to a parti-
cular group of mining communities with the goal of
decreasing the use of mercury within a watershed (tech-
nology strategy) or banning the import and trade of
mercury within a political jurisdiction, with the goal of
reducing the local availability of mercury to mining
communities (policy strategy).
Results
Following the approach outlined by Salafsky et al. (2021)
and illustrated by Boshoven et al. (2021), while relying on
guidance materials created by the Conservation Measures
Partnership (2020), and drawing from the authors’experi-
ences, we developed a high-level, generic situation analysis
for ASGM policy-level interventions (Fig. 3). Here, we
incorporated insights from an unpublished impact analysis
of Conservation X Labs’Artisanal Mining Grand Chal-
lenge, a four-year initiative that utilized an open innovation
model to develop technical solutions and policy shifts in the
global artisanal mining sector (CXL, unpublished report) to
create this generic situation analysis.
From the situation analysis, we formulated a generic
ToC for an overarching policy-based intervention (Fig. 4),
based on an extensive review of the literature for current
approaches being used in countries around the world (BRI
and TNC 2022). While policy solutions have not always
been adequate (Hilson 2006; Hilson and Maconachie
2020; Lara-Rodríguez and Fritz 2023), government
interventions in the sale and trade of both gold and mer-
cury will be required to make any advances in reducing
mercury contamination. In our generic ToC, we identify
three “entry points”to illustrate this approach, which are
presented independent of location or specifictime-
delineated outcomes. We introduce a critical emphasis –
that these three entry points are inextricably linked, and
while each has its own “impact pathway”, none of the
pathways is likely to be successful without success in the
The global challenge of reducing mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold mining. . . 509
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Fig. 2 Generic situation models extracted from Conservation Measures Partnership, (2020) showing (A) project context and (B) scope, vision and
targets. Figures reproduced courtesy of CMP (2020)
510 A. R. Aldous et al.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
others. This explicit integration of multiple entry points is
absent from many proposed policy interventions that
focus on a single entry point.
We identified three integrated policy impact pathways:
(1) governments more effectively enforce and incentivize
compliance of existing national laws and regulations on
mercury use; (2) governments develop new laws and poli-
cies according to international agreements such as the
Minamata Convention to reduce mercury; (3) and indigen-
ous and other civil society groups hold governments
accountable for developing and enforcing laws and policies
to reduce mercury releases. Pathways (1) and (2) are
intended to all be coordinated under a party’s Minamata
National Action Plan.
The three pathways recognize that policy assessment and
improvement (including the addition of new policies) are
best aligned with the global guidance coming from Mina-
mata Convention obligations. They also emphasize a
missing component of many national governmental
approaches to policy creation and implementation, namely
that local partnerships and engagement in on-the-ground
and in-the-water policy implementation is essential to suc-
cess, as indigenous people and local communities are at the
front lines of impact from mercury contamination and are
affected by incentive structures that engage them in ASGM.
In this generic ToC diagram, the emphasis shifts from the
generic situational analysis (Fig. 3) by adding in more detail
on outputs and impacts. Here, we purposefully make a
distinction between short- and long-term outcomes, as this
has emerged as critical for program planning as well as for
structuring monitoring and evaluation efforts essential in
any adaptively managed effort. Similarly, multiple mercury-
related threat reduction impacts are specified, that collec-
tively are expected to lead to improvement in the associated
ecosystem services.
Discussion
We recognize that there are many potential entry points to
reduce mercury in ASGM activities around the world.
While not intended to be comprehensive, some of the more
common potential entry points currently being addressed
are illustrated in Table 1.
In our generic ToC, the first impact pathway recognizes
that individual countries will have a variety of existing laws
and policies that address mercury contamination. These
could be specific to mercury (bans or regulation on use) or
more general to heavy metal contamination (e.g., regulation
of wastewater discharge). In addition to banning mercury
use and ASGM, governments may have policies that seek to
formalize and regulate the ASGM sector, including pro-
moting the use of mercury-free technology (Planet Gold
2023). Policies could also be indirectly related to ASGM,
including logging regulations in countries where defor-
estation is often caused by ASGM activity (Caballero
Espejo et al. 2018). Enforcement of these laws and policies
will require actions focused on technical skills and support,
such as early warning systems to collect and synthesize data
on spatial and temporal trends in ASGM activity and related
deforestation; monitoring of mercury contamination levels
in people and wildlife; training for enforcement officials;
and access to mercury-free ASGM technologies.
If effective, these actions should lead to increased insti-
tutional and technical capacity within regulating bodies,
resulting in improved enforcement of existing laws and
policies, and ultimately a reduction in mercury pollution of
ecosystems and people. However, it is well-established that
many environmental policies are only weakly enforced
(Hiriart et al. 2011), and so multiple enabling conditions
must be present for this pathway to be effective. In addition
to institutional and technical capacity, it is essential to have
Fig. 3 A generic, high-level situation analysis of a policy approach to
mercury reduction that includes engagement and empowerment of
IPLC in implementation. Boxes labeled “driver”are generic examples
and the one generic “intervention”is intended to illustrate how it could
break the connection between drivers. Threat factors may contribute to
other threat factors, as well as be direct threats themselves. For
example, water quality degradation is a stand-alone threat, and it also
exacerbates biodiversity loss and human health degradation. Examples
of specific interventions that could be used in a more detailed situation
models are provided to illustrate how this generic situation analysis
could be expanded for use in any given program area. Figure repro-
duced courtesy of Conservation X Labs
The global challenge of reducing mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold mining. . . 511
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
financial support, political will for enforcement, awareness
by the regulated community, credible monitoring systems in
place, and reasonable livelihood alternatives for mining
communities.
The second policy impact pathway is via the Minamata
Convention, which entered into force in 2017. The Con-
vention is a multilateral environmental agreement aimed at
reducing and ultimately eliminating global mercury pol-
lution. It is named after Minamata Bay on the west coast of
Kyushu Island in Japan, where from 1932–1968, the
Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory released waste-
water heavily contaminated with the toxic form of mercury
(methylmercury) into the Hyakken Harbor, contaminating
fish in the bay. The local community was highly dependent
on this fishery, and it is estimated that 2,252 people were
impacted, resulting in 1,043 deaths (Harada 1995). It was
not until 1956 that the disease was linked to mercury
contamination. ASGM presents a real risk that many
“Minamata Bays”are now happening simultaneously
around the world. To reverse this increasing risk, much
more organized, aligned, and coordinated efforts are
needed, thus necessitating the use of a generic ToC to
guide these global efforts.
To date, the Minamata Convention has 146 Parties,
including many of the countries with significant ASGM
activity, and it requires they develop strategies, take actions,
and report on progress related to mercury emissions from
ASGM and other industries from which mercury is released
(e.g., coal fired power plants, chlor-alkali production, bat-
teries). The Convention also provides technical assistance,
information exchange, public awareness, and research and
monitoring (Minamata Convention 2023).
Once a Contracting Party has ratified the Convention, it
may complete a Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA), which
includes inventories of mercury and mercury compounds;
sources of emissions and releases; overview of structure,
institutions, and legislation available to implement the
Convention; identification of populations at risk; current
understanding by workers and the public; and a plan for
implementation of priority actions for reducing mercury in
the environment. When MIAs find that ASGM activities are
significant sources of mercury, the countries must produce a
Fig. 4 Generic policy ToC to reduce mercury contamination from ASGM activities. Three integrated impact pathways are identified that must be
addressed to achieve any program’s goals of improving the health of nature and people impacted by mercury contamination from ASGM activity
512 A. R. Aldous et al.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
National Action Plan (NAP) to address this specific source,
following Annex C of the Convention. This includes
objectives and reduction targets; specific ASGM-related
actions to eliminate; steps for formalization or regulation of
the sector; estimates of the quantities of mercury used;
strategies for promoting mercury reduction, managing the
trade of mercury, involving stakeholders, addressing public
health, preventing exposure, and educating the affected
communities; and a schedule for implementation.
The ToC for this policy pathway involves supporting
Contracting Party nations in completing MIAs, developing
NAPs where ASGM is significant, and implementing
interventions (articulated in NIPs) to ultimately reduce
mercury use and contamination. Many of the actions for
this pathway are similar (if not identical) to the first impact
pathway, including those to secure necessary technical and
financial support. In some cases, the national laws and
policies may already exist for NAP implementation, as in
pathway (1). In other cases, new laws and policies must be
developed to address the findings of the MIA and objec-
tives of the NAP. Like pathway (1), enabling conditions
must exist or be developed to ensure implementation and
enforcement.
Linking national responses to global conventions is a
well-known approach (e.g., Convention on Biodiversity).
While explicit linkages to participation of indigenous peo-
ple and local communities is more of an emerging strategy,
a decision was adopted at the 5th Convention of Parties in
2023 to strengthen this element. Thus, the third policy
impact pathway defines explicit and purposeful engagement
with the many IPLC who are directly impacted by ASGM,
either by consuming fish and breathing air that is con-
taminated with mercury from ASGM, or who themselves
participate in ASGM. These affected populations can play a
powerful role in engaging with governments to meet their
legal obligations made under various laws and policies.
Certain enabling conditions of the IPLC sector facilitate
their effective participation (Zhang et al. 2023). Strong
tenure security gives communities legal standing over the
resource in question (e.g., land tenure where ASGM is
being practiced illegally on indigenous territories; mineral
rights where there is a question of who can mine; fisheries
rightsforcontaminatedfoodsupplies).Theyalsorequire
leadership capacity and access to decision-making plat-
forms to have their voices heard. And finally, communities
who may see ASGM as a lucrative opportunity need
livelihood alternatives that are culturally appropriate and
can ensure a reasonable standard of living (Karres et al.
2022; Zhang et al. 2023). This could include sustainable
ASGM that is done without the use of mercury and
without extensive habitat destruction (Planet Gold 2023).
In addition to engaging directly with governments in
decision-making arenas, indigenous people bring important
Table 1 Potential entry points for addressing mercury contamination of people and nature from ASGM activities
Potential entry point Example engagementa
Government articulation of commitments to the international convention specifically
addressing ASGM contributions to mercury contaminationbMinamata Convention –Minamata Initial Assessments and ASGM National Action Plans https://
mercuryconvention.org/en/about
Government enforcement of existing laws connected to ASGM and mercuryaMinamata Convention –National Implementation Plans –https://mercuryconvention.org/en/about
IPLC engagement with governments to meet legal obligationsaSinangoe community in Ecuador: https://coicamazonia.org/lucha-historica-de-la-comunidad-ai-cofa
n-de-sinangoe-por-sus-territorios-y-derechos-como-pueblos-originarios/
Formalization of ASGM sector and gold supply chain reforms Funding provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund (https://www.thegef.org/w
hat-we-do/topics/mercury). Artisanal Gold Council (https://artisanalgold.org/), Planet Gold
(https://www.planetgold.org/)
Technological Innovations Conservation X Labs’s Artisanal mining grand challenge https://www.artisanalminingchallenge.
com/ The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s program, Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold
Mining Without Mercuryhttps://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/artisanal-and-small-scale-
gold-mining-without-mercury
Protected area management and law enforcement Frankfurt Zoological Society https://fzs.org/en/news/expert-opinion-illegal-gold-mining/
Outreach, education, capacity building at the community level World Wildlife Fund http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/healthy_rivers_healthy_people.pdf
Research and Monitoring Biodiversity Research Institute’s Center for Mercury Studies https://briwildlife.org/hgcenter/;
Centro de Innovación Cientifica Amazónica (CINCIA) https://cincia.wfu.edu/en/
aList is illustrative and not meant to be exhaustive. Some organizations engage in multiple entry points
bDiscussed in this paper
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skills and lessons including knowledge of the rivers, lakes,
and forests where ASGM takes place and the fish and other
affected species and could be important contributors to
monitoring systems that must sample these remote areas.
There are powerful examples of indigenous people devel-
oping guardian patrol programs to track illegal activities
within their territories (e.g., in Ecuador: https://coicama
zonia.org/lucha-historica-de-la-comunidad-ai-cofan-de-sina
ngoe-por-sus-territorios-y-derechos-como-pueblos-origina
rios/ and Brazil: https://www.weareguardiansfilm.com/).
Similarly, monitoring the health of local communities could
also be an important indicator of the Minamata Conven-
tion’s overall impact. For example, decreasing trends in
mercury contamination among indigenous people have been
documented recently in the Arctic (Adlard et al. 2021).
However, not only are there no comparable trend data in the
tropics that we are aware of, the increase in ASGM activity
suggests that trends could be very different across the tro-
pics, highlighting the need for investing in more baseline
monitoring that is also suggested by the Minamata
Convention.
In the absence of basic information on the sources and
amounts of mercury contamination in a country, and the
identification of appropriate interventions to reduce con-
tamination supported by the national and local govern-
ments, it is difficult to envision the informed development
of appropriate interventions and associated ToCs that will
lead to desired outcomes of reducing or eliminating mercury
contamination. Supporting the active engagement of coun-
tries with the Minamata Convention is one entry point that
can work within an existing policy structure to improve the
information and planning needed to better address the
impacts of mercury contamination from ASGM.
For example, the most recent Global Mercury Assess-
ment (UNEP UN Environment Programme 2019) estimates
that approximately 83% of South America’s mercury
emissions are from ASGM activity. Peru and Ecuador
became parties to the Minamata Convention in 2017, and
Colombia followed in 2019 (Minamata Convention 2023).
Their participation in the convention has helped to advance
collecting information on the sources of mercury con-
tamination, developing plans for appropriate interventions,
and establishing mechanisms to track implementation.
Regarding mercury contamination, Colombia released its
first national report in 2017 summarizing the results of the
MIA process (UNIDO 2017), which concluded the top two
sources of mercury emissions and releases into the envir-
onment came from the mining sector: (1) gold extraction
with mercury amalgamation (331,551 kg Hg/year, or
55.7%); and (2) primary metal production excluding gold
amalgamation (159,105 Kg Hg/year, or 26.7%). These two
mining sources accounted for a total of 82.4% of all the
mercury emissions and releases into the environment, and
approximately 95% of all gold mining in Colombia is
ASGM (Yoshimura et al. 2021). Regarding mercury release
directly into air and water, one factor emerged as the
dominant input for both–gold extraction with mercury
amalgamation (198,931 kg Hg/year or 86.9% for air and 66,
310 kg Hg/year or 80.6% for water). Mining was also
estimated to be a dominant driver of mercury releases to soil
(66,310 kg Hg/year or 29.8%).
Following this baseline assessment, a second
government-backed study revealed significant mercury
contamination in the local communities, fish, water and
soils of the middle Caquetá River Basin (MOI 2019). This
study was the result of concern expressed by the Puerto
Zábalo –Los Monos Resguardo to the National Natural
Parks of Colombia to better understand the impact of gold
mining activity in the Caquetá area and its effects on the
fishery resource and the implications for the health of its
inhabitants. This report supports the results of the Global
Mercury Assessment (UNEP UN Environment Programme
2019) and Colombia MIA (UNIDO 2017) that ASGM
activities are the primary source of mercury contamination.
The work needed to develop the plans necessary to
address significant sources of contamination and complex
strategies to reduce their impacts on people and nature need
the support of local and national governments to establish
the enabling conditions needed for success, for which the
Minamata Convention provides an enabling structure
(Minamata Secretariat 2023). In South America, Ecuador
submitted its National Action Plan (NAP) to address
ASGM-derived mercury contamination in 2019, while Peru
also submitted its National Implementation Plan (NIP) to
address all sources of mercury contamination in 2019 –one
of only three countries in the world to do so.
In the third policy impact pathway that we present, civil
society organizations and governments collaborate with
IPLC by supporting their endeavors through financing,
supporting citizen science, providing data on amounts and
sources of mercury contamination, capacity-building,
funding for health care services and training on how to
recognize the symptoms of mercury contamination, and
information on how to make healthier choices to avoid
eating contaminated fish. This work is best done following
the lead of the communities, due to the social and economic
complexity of ASGM in the landscapes in which they live.
In the case where the community is participating in ASGM,
civil society organizations and governments can support
their transition to a more sustainable ASGM or other live-
lihood options through financing and capacity building for
technology transfer.
Developing a situation analysis for detailing a ToC can
refine that strategy in several ways. It can assist in identi-
fying the enabling conditions under which strategies are
more likely to be effective (e.g., Boshoven et al. 2020). It
514 A. R. Aldous et al.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
can help in the development of a monitoring, evaluation,
and learning program and in selecting indicators (e.g.,
Effective Evaluation (EE) component of Minamata Con-
vention). It can be used to identify assumptions and prior-
itize research needed to test those assumptions. And it can
assist in defining and prioritizing the individual actions
needed to be taken.
The complex socio-political context of mercury con-
tamination from ASGM points to a need to develop situa-
tion analyses and ToC for improving the effectiveness of
interventions. By constructing a generic ToC first, we
highlight that our emphasis on key policy-related outcomes
and impacts can’t be achieved in isolation. In our example,
we illustrate that for the policy actions to be successful,
there will need to be engagement and participation of local
communities, which is a gap in many national policies.
Furthermore, we suggest that multiple strategies from dif-
ferent synergistic entry points are needed to be effective in
reducing, and ultimately eliminating this pervasive threat to
nature and people.
We recognize that developing a generic ToC is simply a
tool to facilitate engagement with stakeholders on reducing
the threat of mercury contamination. Once a decision is
made to adopt the generic ToC to guide decision-making,
important next steps include adapting the generic ToC to the
specific context and then conducting a return-on-investment
(ROI) or tradeoff analysis to shape which entry point or
points will be selected, taking into consideration the local,
national, and global contexts as well as the capacities of the
implementers. Providing additional guidance on how to
shape this next step in decision-making is a current gap in
the knowledge and understanding about how best to address
mercury contamination in ASGM activities around the
world, especially considering the substantial variability in
data and knowledge and local contexts that shape ASGM
activities in different countries.
There are, of course, limitations to the ToC introduced
here. The scope of this analysis was on reducing mercury
contamination from ASGM, not the reduction of ASGM
itself. In addition to contributing to mercury contamination,
ASGM has other negative impacts to the environment (e.g.,
deforestation, soil degradation, erosion, river sedimentation)
and to communities (e.g., human rights and labor abuses).
More specific actions to address these threats is needed.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the ToC introduced
here is the recognition that engagement of indigenous
people and local communities is an essential component to
the success of any policy approach. These populations are
an integral part of the policy entry point’s impact since these
communities experience both the health and socioeconomic
impacts of ASGM and mercury contamination. We
emphasize the role taken by these communities in engaging
with governments to help design and implement more
effective laws and policies to address the threat of mercury
from ASGM. And yet we also recognize there are many
factors that result in high levels of social complexity. For
example, in the Amazon, some community members may
be small-scale gold miners using mercury, some fishers who
may oppose the activity, while others are both miners and
fishers (Escobar-Camacho and Rosero-López, pers comm).
With consistently high gold prices, easily available sources
of mercury, and the low-tech method using mercury for
extraction, relying on ASGM as an income stream is a
reasonable livelihood decision. This complexity only
highlights the need to ensure full engagement of these
affected communities.
Conclusions
Mercury use in ASGM is a multifaceted global problem that
presents practitioners with several complex challenges.
Despite the substantial efforts that have been channeled into
the ASGM sector, there remains a conspicuous absence of
explicitly defined strategies in the published literature
focusing on mercury risk reduction in the context of
ASGM, and associated studies that document with evidence
the effective implementation of these interventions that
result in the actual reduction in mercury contamination.
In this paper, we present a situation analysis for mercury
in ASGM based on the experience of practitioners working
in this space, as well as an initial effort at developing a ToC
for policy-based interventions. The adoption and use of
generic ToC offers a promising avenue for addressing
mercury in ASGM. ToCs provide a framework that facil-
itates system description and definition which can foster a
shared understanding of the system and enable stakeholders
to converge on a unified definition and terminology, which
in turn helps to understand system dynamics. Furthermore,
generic ToCs such as these can and should be modified for
each local context.
By presenting these generic ToCs, our aim is to con-
tribute to the discussion on how to improve efforts to
address an increasing global problem that has proven
remarkably resistant to change. We suggest that the use of
these tools can help to accelerate the development of
effective impact pathways, including in the development of
National Action Plans, and offer insights into how best to
intervene that explicitly link global to local efforts neces-
sary to ultimately reduce the growing impact of mercury
contamination to people and nature around the world.
Acknowledgements We acknowledge some of the many practitioners
that have helped to shape the perspectives illustrated in this paper,
including Marion Adeney from Conservation X Labs who contributed
to the development of unpublished material in this manuscript, and to
Felipe Lesmes Palacio, Daniela Pinto, Claudia Vega, Dave Evers,
The global challenge of reducing mercury contamination from artisanal and small-scale gold mining. . . 515
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Mark Burton, Sarah Gammage, Flavia Rocha Loures, Silvia Benitez,
Gabriela Celi Checa, Pedro Jimenez Prado, Jean Hervé Mve Beh,
Churley Manfoumbi, Daniel Escobar-Camacho, Daniela Rosero-
López, Isai Victorino, Carolina Polania, Melany Ruiz-Urigüen, John
Poulsen, and the communities of Sinangoe and Gomataon (Ecuador)
and El Quince and Nineras (Colombia).
Author contributions All authors contributed to the study conception
and design. Research design, initial situation analyses, and early drafts
of ToC were performed by all authors. All manuscript drafts were
written by ARA and TT. Revisions were done by all authors.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless
indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended
use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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