Victoire Girard
(Nova Lisbon)
will give a presentation on
Artisanal mining in Africa: Green for gold?
Abstract: The livelihoods of 130 to 270 million people depend on artisanal mining, a labor-intensive and often informal extractive activity. Leveraging research in geology and exogenous changes in gold prices, we build the first continent-wide proxy of artisanal gold mining. We show that the historical increase in the gold price is responsible for 8% of deforestation continent-wide, 28% in gold areas. Artisanal gold mining also increases local economic wealth, but the magnitude of these economic impacts is comparatively modest. Turning to mechanisms, the primary driver of deforestation appears to be the mining activity itself, while mining-induced changes in human settlements or local demand have limited impacts. The final section investigates potential policy solutions.