MERCURY SCIENCE-POLICY NEXUS
Science-Policy Relevant Issues on ASGM in the Peruvian Amazon
(A) Insufficient environmental management and monitoring of activities related to ASGM, including but not exclusive to the release of elemental mercury in environmental media –soil, foodstuffs, sediment, water, and fish-, has led to extensive ecological and public health harm in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios.
(B) Fragmented public health, social policy or environmental interventions have been implemented without success, whilst the research carried out at different levels has failed to identify appropriate mitigation measures (Hilson, 2006; Chen et al., 2018) and policy change recommendations that are implementable in Peru. Furthermore,
(C) both mercury research and policy have been unable to integrate their activities and learn from each other to create a multilayered and cross-sectoral arrangements and interdisciplinary action to find significant beneficial impacts.
Therefore, it is an increasing need for actions towards:
(A) Improving the government capacity for environmental management and monitoring toward full compliance with the Minamata obligations: from financial to technical assistance to implement national reduction plans; and from the creation of regulatory frameworks and standards to the deployment and piloting of new methodologies. This will require the development of new technologies and new know-how approaches, as well as renovated methodologies to take communities affected to the center of the actions and coordination among stakeholders. As the GOP has ratified the Covenant on Mercury, the agenda of environmental, public health and international cooperation agencies and other stakeholders are to adapt to government’s international obligations (Chen et al., 2018).
(B) Increasing the whole-of-government as well as whole-of-sector capacities for inter-sectoral coordination taking into consideration the multidimensional character of this public policy. Dimensions such as finance and access to credit, legalization, gender, organizational and institutional, environmental management, technological development and transfer of technology, participatory local management, access to information, work conditions, and health and security; should be addressed. In order to be effective ASGM public policy requires the participation of a myriad of local, national and, eventually, international actors. The buy-in and coordination of those actors should be the responsibility of the government at the highest possible level rather than individual implementing agencies (ILO, 1999; MMSD, 2002; Barreto L., 2011).
(C) Identifying and creating instances of integration between mercury science & research and policy & decision-making is critical for improving institutional effectiveness of response to human and environmental health outcomes as a result of the use of mercury in artisanal, small or illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios. This is critical as human epidemiology is rapidly changing: there is evidence on the interaction of mercury exposures with other disease factors such as infectious diseases like malaria, but also microbiome and antibiotic resistance, as well as genetic and epigenetic factors (Chen et al., 2018). On the environmental epidemiology side, it is still unknown how environmental change will impact the “dynamics of mercury in air, land, and water, and resulting human and wildlife exposure. As a result, comprehensive monitoring that incorporates these drivers will be key to inform the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention in a changing world” (Chen et al., 2018, Driscoll C., 2013, and Gustin M. et al., 2016).
The role of academic research institutions can be critical for the above-mentioned conditions for government’s actions effectiveness improvement, if they can help decision makers in the country follow policies and programs with high degree of support and high certainty of political acceptance.
Sources
- Asner G. et al. “Elevated rates of gold mining in the Amazon revealed through high-resolution monitoring”, PNAS, vol. 110 no. 46, November 12, 2013
- Asner G. et al. “Accelerated losses of protected forests from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon”, Environmental Research Letters, 2017- Asokan G.V. et al., “Use of a systems approach and evidence-based One Health for zoonoses research”, Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 4 62–65, 2011
- Bartram J. et al., “Beyond direct impact: Evidence synthesis towards a better understanding of effectiveness of environmental health interventions”, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 217 155–159, 2014
- Basu N. et al., “A State-of-the-Science Review of Mercury Biomarkers in Human Populations Worldwide between 2000 and 2018”, Environmental Health Perspectives, 126(10) October 2018a
- Bloom, Paul and Dees J. Gregory, “Cultivate Your Ecosystem”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2008
- Caballero J. et al., “Deforestation and forest degradation due to gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: a 34-year perspective”, Preprint, November, 2018
- Carnegie Institution for Science, Mercury in Madre de Dios, 2013
- CELDA, Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon The Cases of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Suriname, 2013
- Chen C. et al., “A Critical Time for Mercury Science to Inform Global Policy”, Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 9556−9561, 2018
- Damonte G. et al., “Small-Scale Gold Mining and Social en Environmental Conflict in the Peruvian Amazon”, Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon The Cases of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Suriname, CELDA, 2013
- Diringer, S. et alt., “River transport of mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining and risks for dietary mercury exposure in Madre de Dios, Peru”, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 17(2) December 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4EM00567H
- DFID, Designing and Pilot Implementation of a Model Scheme of Assistance to Small Scale Miners, Wardel-Armstrong, 2000
- Driscoll C. et al., “Mercury as a Global Pollutant: Sources, Pathways, and Effects”, Environmental Science & Technology, 47 4967−4983, 2013
- El-Jardali F. et al., “Changing roles of universities in the era of SDGs: rising up to the global challenge through institutionalizing partnerships with governments and communities”, Health Research Policy and Systems, (2018) 16:38 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0318-9
- Fraser, B., “Peruvian gold rush threatens health and the environment”, Environmental Science & Technology 43(19): 7612-7164, 2009.
- Fraser, B., “Peru's gold rush raises health fears”, Nature, 534: 161, 2016.
- GIATOC - Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, Case Study: Illicit Gold Mining in Peru, 2017
- Gormley W. et al., Partnership Building: Practical Tools to Help You Create, Strengthen, Assess and Manage Your Partnership or Alliance More Productively, USAID, 2007
- Government of Peru, Plan Nacional para la Formalización de la Minería Artesanal, Comisión Técnica Multisectoral, 2011
- Government Peru, Análisis de Situación de Salud del pueblo Nahua, 2017
- Government Peru, Decreto Supremo Nº 010-2016-MINAM (Aprueban Plan de Acción Multisectoral para la implementación del Convenio de Minamata sobre el Mercurio), 2016
- Government of Peru –MINEM, Anuario Minero 2017, Lima, 2018
- Gustin M. et al. (including Driscoll), “Importance of Integration and Implementation of Emerging and Future Mercury Research into the Minamata Convention”, Environmental Science & Technology 50 (6), 2016
- Hilson G., “Abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining industry: Restructuring the policy and research agendas”, Science of the Total Environment, 362 1 – 14, 2005
- ILO, Social and labour issues in small-scale mines Report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Social and Labour Issues in Small-scale Mines, Geneva, 1999
- ICMM, The role of Mining in National Economies, Mining Contribution Index 2018 4th Edition, London, 2018
- NRGI, Resource Governance Index 2017, New York, 2017
- Pan, W., Mercury Pollution & the Madre de Dios watershed, Duke at: https://sites.globalhealth.duke.edu/panlab/mercury-pollution-in-the-madre-de-dios-rivershed
- Pattanayak S. et al., “Implementation of Policies to Protect Planetary Health”, The Lancet, Vol 1 October 2017
- Proceedings National Academy of Science, Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru, 2009
- Rajaee M., “Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12, 8971-9011, 2015
- Rodriguez-Ward, D. et al., “Top-down, Bottom-up and Sideways: The Multilayered Complexities of Multi-level Actors Shaping Forest Governance and REDD+ Arrangements in Madre de Dios, Peru”, Environmental Management, January 3rd 2018
- Stone D. et al., Bridging Research and Policy, DFID/Warwick University 2001
- Takahashi, B. et alt, Environmental Discourses and Discourse Coalitions in the Reconfiguration of Peru’s Environmental Governance, Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2012
- United Nations Environment Programme, Time to Act Report, 2013
- United Nations Environment Programme, Minamata Convention on Mercury, September 2017
- USAID, Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2012-2016 - Peru, 2012
- Veiga, M. el al., “Mercury pollution from deforestation”, Nature, 368(6474), 816, 1994 Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/docview/204469750?accountid=10598
- Weitz N., Cross-sectoral integration in the Sustainable Development Goals: a nexus approach, Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015
- World Bank, Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Peru: A Review of the World Bank Group’s Experience (2003–2009), 2011
- World Health Organization/ Poulin J, “Mercury: Assessing the environmental burden of disease at national and local levels”, Environmental Burden of Disease Series, No. 16, 2008
- World Health Organization / Prüss-Üstün A. et al., Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks, 2016
Science-Policy Relevant Issues on ASGM in the Peruvian Amazon
(A) Insufficient environmental management and monitoring of activities related to ASGM, including but not exclusive to the release of elemental mercury in environmental media –soil, foodstuffs, sediment, water, and fish-, has led to extensive ecological and public health harm in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios.
(B) Fragmented public health, social policy or environmental interventions have been implemented without success, whilst the research carried out at different levels has failed to identify appropriate mitigation measures (Hilson, 2006; Chen et al., 2018) and policy change recommendations that are implementable in Peru. Furthermore,
(C) both mercury research and policy have been unable to integrate their activities and learn from each other to create a multilayered and cross-sectoral arrangements and interdisciplinary action to find significant beneficial impacts.
Therefore, it is an increasing need for actions towards:
(A) Improving the government capacity for environmental management and monitoring toward full compliance with the Minamata obligations: from financial to technical assistance to implement national reduction plans; and from the creation of regulatory frameworks and standards to the deployment and piloting of new methodologies. This will require the development of new technologies and new know-how approaches, as well as renovated methodologies to take communities affected to the center of the actions and coordination among stakeholders. As the GOP has ratified the Covenant on Mercury, the agenda of environmental, public health and international cooperation agencies and other stakeholders are to adapt to government’s international obligations (Chen et al., 2018).
(B) Increasing the whole-of-government as well as whole-of-sector capacities for inter-sectoral coordination taking into consideration the multidimensional character of this public policy. Dimensions such as finance and access to credit, legalization, gender, organizational and institutional, environmental management, technological development and transfer of technology, participatory local management, access to information, work conditions, and health and security; should be addressed. In order to be effective ASGM public policy requires the participation of a myriad of local, national and, eventually, international actors. The buy-in and coordination of those actors should be the responsibility of the government at the highest possible level rather than individual implementing agencies (ILO, 1999; MMSD, 2002; Barreto L., 2011).
(C) Identifying and creating instances of integration between mercury science & research and policy & decision-making is critical for improving institutional effectiveness of response to human and environmental health outcomes as a result of the use of mercury in artisanal, small or illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios. This is critical as human epidemiology is rapidly changing: there is evidence on the interaction of mercury exposures with other disease factors such as infectious diseases like malaria, but also microbiome and antibiotic resistance, as well as genetic and epigenetic factors (Chen et al., 2018). On the environmental epidemiology side, it is still unknown how environmental change will impact the “dynamics of mercury in air, land, and water, and resulting human and wildlife exposure. As a result, comprehensive monitoring that incorporates these drivers will be key to inform the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention in a changing world” (Chen et al., 2018, Driscoll C., 2013, and Gustin M. et al., 2016).
The role of academic research institutions can be critical for the above-mentioned conditions for government’s actions effectiveness improvement, if they can help decision makers in the country follow policies and programs with high degree of support and high certainty of political acceptance.
Sources
- Asner G. et al. “Elevated rates of gold mining in the Amazon revealed through high-resolution monitoring”, PNAS, vol. 110 no. 46, November 12, 2013
- Asner G. et al. “Accelerated losses of protected forests from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon”, Environmental Research Letters, 2017- Asokan G.V. et al., “Use of a systems approach and evidence-based One Health for zoonoses research”, Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 4 62–65, 2011
- Bartram J. et al., “Beyond direct impact: Evidence synthesis towards a better understanding of effectiveness of environmental health interventions”, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 217 155–159, 2014
- Basu N. et al., “A State-of-the-Science Review of Mercury Biomarkers in Human Populations Worldwide between 2000 and 2018”, Environmental Health Perspectives, 126(10) October 2018a
- Bloom, Paul and Dees J. Gregory, “Cultivate Your Ecosystem”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2008
- Caballero J. et al., “Deforestation and forest degradation due to gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: a 34-year perspective”, Preprint, November, 2018
- Carnegie Institution for Science, Mercury in Madre de Dios, 2013
- CELDA, Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon The Cases of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Suriname, 2013
- Chen C. et al., “A Critical Time for Mercury Science to Inform Global Policy”, Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 9556−9561, 2018
- Damonte G. et al., “Small-Scale Gold Mining and Social en Environmental Conflict in the Peruvian Amazon”, Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon The Cases of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Suriname, CELDA, 2013
- Diringer, S. et alt., “River transport of mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining and risks for dietary mercury exposure in Madre de Dios, Peru”, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 17(2) December 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C4EM00567H
- DFID, Designing and Pilot Implementation of a Model Scheme of Assistance to Small Scale Miners, Wardel-Armstrong, 2000
- Driscoll C. et al., “Mercury as a Global Pollutant: Sources, Pathways, and Effects”, Environmental Science & Technology, 47 4967−4983, 2013
- El-Jardali F. et al., “Changing roles of universities in the era of SDGs: rising up to the global challenge through institutionalizing partnerships with governments and communities”, Health Research Policy and Systems, (2018) 16:38 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0318-9
- Fraser, B., “Peruvian gold rush threatens health and the environment”, Environmental Science & Technology 43(19): 7612-7164, 2009.
- Fraser, B., “Peru's gold rush raises health fears”, Nature, 534: 161, 2016.
- GIATOC - Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, Case Study: Illicit Gold Mining in Peru, 2017
- Gormley W. et al., Partnership Building: Practical Tools to Help You Create, Strengthen, Assess and Manage Your Partnership or Alliance More Productively, USAID, 2007
- Government of Peru, Plan Nacional para la Formalización de la Minería Artesanal, Comisión Técnica Multisectoral, 2011
- Government Peru, Análisis de Situación de Salud del pueblo Nahua, 2017
- Government Peru, Decreto Supremo Nº 010-2016-MINAM (Aprueban Plan de Acción Multisectoral para la implementación del Convenio de Minamata sobre el Mercurio), 2016
- Government of Peru –MINEM, Anuario Minero 2017, Lima, 2018
- Gustin M. et al. (including Driscoll), “Importance of Integration and Implementation of Emerging and Future Mercury Research into the Minamata Convention”, Environmental Science & Technology 50 (6), 2016
- Hilson G., “Abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining industry: Restructuring the policy and research agendas”, Science of the Total Environment, 362 1 – 14, 2005
- ILO, Social and labour issues in small-scale mines Report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Social and Labour Issues in Small-scale Mines, Geneva, 1999
- ICMM, The role of Mining in National Economies, Mining Contribution Index 2018 4th Edition, London, 2018
- NRGI, Resource Governance Index 2017, New York, 2017
- Pan, W., Mercury Pollution & the Madre de Dios watershed, Duke at: https://sites.globalhealth.duke.edu/panlab/mercury-pollution-in-the-madre-de-dios-rivershed
- Pattanayak S. et al., “Implementation of Policies to Protect Planetary Health”, The Lancet, Vol 1 October 2017
- Proceedings National Academy of Science, Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru, 2009
- Rajaee M., “Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12, 8971-9011, 2015
- Rodriguez-Ward, D. et al., “Top-down, Bottom-up and Sideways: The Multilayered Complexities of Multi-level Actors Shaping Forest Governance and REDD+ Arrangements in Madre de Dios, Peru”, Environmental Management, January 3rd 2018
- Stone D. et al., Bridging Research and Policy, DFID/Warwick University 2001
- Takahashi, B. et alt, Environmental Discourses and Discourse Coalitions in the Reconfiguration of Peru’s Environmental Governance, Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2012
- United Nations Environment Programme, Time to Act Report, 2013
- United Nations Environment Programme, Minamata Convention on Mercury, September 2017
- USAID, Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2012-2016 - Peru, 2012
- Veiga, M. el al., “Mercury pollution from deforestation”, Nature, 368(6474), 816, 1994 Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/docview/204469750?accountid=10598
- Weitz N., Cross-sectoral integration in the Sustainable Development Goals: a nexus approach, Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015
- World Bank, Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Peru: A Review of the World Bank Group’s Experience (2003–2009), 2011
- World Health Organization/ Poulin J, “Mercury: Assessing the environmental burden of disease at national and local levels”, Environmental Burden of Disease Series, No. 16, 2008
- World Health Organization / Prüss-Üstün A. et al., Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks, 2016