SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCALE GOLD ... - WWF

have to be motivated to observe the rule of law. Security is also a key issue in the mining
zones. In many mining areas the rule of law has to be re-established, not only with
respect to immigration and labor. Crime rates must be reduced significantly, and this is an
important opportunity for gaining the support of miners who live and work under
continuous threat in many places in the interior. The new legal instruments and
institutions have to provide tenure security, but also ensure the safety of miners. Recently
the chairman of the Association of Brazilian Garimpeiros in Suriname (COGASUR)
suggested in the media that the registration fee should be re-introduced. At least it
provided some semblance of legality.
Three basic lessons can be learned from this experience:
1. Sufficient operational resources were available to fund the SIDU undertaking, but
the resources by themselves were not enough to guarantee success. Reinvesting a
legally specified percentage of sub-sector revenues would provide a more
predicable basis from which to plan, organize, and execute control type
interventions.
2. The effort did not sufficiently emphasize Noetstaller‟s second critical condition –
support programs for miners to reduce operational constraints and improve
security. This is a critical condition for securing miner‟s support as well as
fending off criticism in the media that puts the government under pressure to
retract its policies and strategies. The effort first honed in on securing fiscal
revenues, when a support program was urgently needed to help miners attain legal
status and improve their mining methods. Giving priority to an assistance program
to reduce the negative environmental impact of the sub-sector could have helped
enlist broad public support for a reform effort.
3. There is a lack of an up-to-date and functional mining legislation that reflects the
realities of the sub-sector. The law does not sufficiently acknowledge the
limitations faced by miners in the field, and underestimates the institutional
framework that must be in place before the sub-sector can be brought under
control. The absence of a strong and broadly supported policy base will makes it
difficult to enforce new regulations that are based on the new draft law.
Therefore, in the case of Suriname, a third negative circle may be needed to clarify the
root causes of the problems plaguing the SSM sector: a negative cycle resulting from the
lack of funds to finance a field presence, limited government information resulting in
inappropriate policies, ineffective legislation leading to non-compliance and free riding.
The diagram on the next page outlines this negative cycle.
Basic principles of mining legislation from other countries must be studied and applied,
but when used, these principles must also be carefully adapted to the day-to-day reality of
the SSM sector in Suriname.
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