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

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sugar, salt, and other processed foods; and people rely on shotguns, tools, and plasticware, and many other manufactured assets. On the other hand, the kin-ordered societies in the interior have maintained a large degree of cultural, socio-economic, and political autonomy from the coast. Children take part in traditional livelihood activities from a young age; forest medicine plays an important role in curing natural and spiritual diseases; families continue to produce, hunt, and fish a large share of their food; and many products continue to be fabricated from materials found in nature. Moreover, traditional political leaders and decision-making structures remain central to regulating society. Map 1. Living areas of the Indigenous and Maroon groups SSGM is not new to these interior populations. Especially Maroons have a long tradition of artisanal gold extraction. In the early days, however, gold mining was an emergency or opportunity strategy; to solve an immediate need or desire that required cash money. Today, as we will discuss later on in this chapter, SSGM drives the economy of Maroon forest villages in East Suriname. 26
3.2 The second gold rush Until the 1980s, few people other than the above mentioned forest peoples lived and worked in the interior. In Chapter 1 we also noted the absence of the government from this area. This pattern started to change with the onset of the 20 th century gold rush, in the late 1980s (see Chapter II). While the government remained physically and politically removed from the forest, foreign and a lesser extend- coastal small-scale gold miners and service providers began to flock to the mining zones of the interior. Most of these gold miners are Brazilian garimpeiros, who make up more than three quarters of the Suriname mining population (Table 3.1). They usually originate from Brazil‟s poor North-East and Amazonian states; enter Suriname without the required visa; and work clandestinely. The largest share consists of professional garimpeiros who have been mining for years and even decades. Starting their mining careers in Brazilian garimpos, they have worked in a variety of countries including Guyana, French Guiana, and Venezuela. In addition, a smaller number of Brazilian small-farmers work temporarily in the mines. Mining allows them to save money for a larger investment and pay outstanding debts. Migrant miners from Guyana, other Latin American countries, and Europe probably represent no more than 1% of the mining population. Table 2. Socio-cultural characterization of the mining economy Main group Sub group Main functions (in order of frequency) Est. % 1 Surinamers Interior Maroons Pit work Service provider Unit owner Concession holder 17 Coastal Maroons Pit work Service provider Unit owner Concession holder 5 Urban residents from other ethnic Service provider groups Concession holder 2 Brazilians Professional garimpeiros Pit work Service provider Unit owner 65 Small farmers Pit work Service provider Unit owner 10 Other foreigners Guyanese, Columbian, peruian Pit work Service provider 1 Total 100 1 The listed percentages are rough approximations. In-depth survey work is needed to find out how realistic these figures are. Local Suriname miners are for 90-95% of Maroon ethnic origin. A significant share of them originates from the city. Few of these urban Maroons ever worked or lived in the 27
Page 1 and 2: SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCA
Page 3 and 4: 4.6 Concession holders and miners 4
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACT Amazone C
Page 7 and 8: PREFACE The Suriname gold sector ha
Page 9 and 10: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The World Wildlif
Page 11 and 12: Furthermore, the proposed Inter Dep
Page 13 and 14: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The consultants ap
Page 15 and 16: Chapter I INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 ou
Page 17 and 18: government with their experience in
Page 19 and 20: Zoning of mining areas. The third i
Page 21 and 22: known. The risk of water- and air-b
Page 23 and 24: 1.5 Root causes Why is it so diffic
Page 25 and 26: Box 1: The administrative presence
Page 27 and 28: NW-SE greenstone belt between the G
Page 29 and 30: of inappropriate equipment soon tra
Page 31 and 32: other goods imported from Paramarib
Page 33 and 34: their property to a foreign explora
Page 35 and 36: second informal system to the exist
Page 37 and 38: Hydraulic mining was outlawed in Ca
Page 39: Chapter III SOCIAL DIMENSIONS In th
Page 43 and 44: 3.3. Life in the mines Life in the
Page 45 and 46: In contrast to the Brazilian migran
Page 47 and 48: spouse, and jeopardizes their acces
Page 49 and 50: Chapter IV MINING CLASSIFICATION AN
Page 51 and 52: of its original rock structure and
Page 53 and 54: concentrate is panned with mercury.
Page 55 and 56: 6. conjunction with another excavat
Page 57 and 58: 4.3 The classification scheme of No
Page 59 and 60: capital invest in such an enterpris
Page 61 and 62: Most workers are paid a percentage
Page 63 and 64: least earn some income from mining
Page 65 and 66: Fixed costs Operator (150 gr. p. m.
Page 67 and 68: Finally, the concession holder who
Page 69 and 70: Table 7. Differences in organizatio
Page 71 and 72: government‟s policy to phase out
Page 73 and 74: Institutional: It provides guidance
Page 75 and 76: The rights of Indigenous, Maroon an
Page 77 and 78: institutions will be involved, both
Page 79 and 80: nature, mode of occurrence and quan
Page 81 and 82: into several categories, basically
Page 83 and 84: classification of sub-sectors in th
Page 85 and 86: over a period of five or more years
Page 87 and 88: To this day, however, little progre
Page 89 and 90: To issue licenses to small-scale mi
Page 91 and 92:
NB is part of the Forestry Departme
Page 93 and 94:
This development was anticipated by
Page 95 and 96:
in the interior on a regular basis.
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community at the best of their abil
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Help guide law drafters and law mak
Page 101 and 102:
and social laws. An intricate syste
Page 103 and 104:
Table 11. Economic importance of pl
Page 105 and 106:
and likely underestimates the real
Page 107 and 108:
7.1 Summary of the findings Chapter
Page 109 and 110:
the legalization of the activity th
Page 111 and 112:
Uncontrolled sub-sector No funds to
Page 113 and 114:
development leading to a practical
Page 115 and 116:
Hierarchical zoning of SSGM The pro
Page 117 and 118:
13.2 Langatete Zone 13.3 Cottica Zo
Page 119 and 120:
critical, as use of their infrastru
Page 121 and 122:
evised proposal to reflect the outc
Page 123 and 124:
13 De Vletter, D.R., and A.L 1998 t
Page 125 and 126:
32 Maatschap van Geologen en Mijnbo
Page 127:
51 World Bank 1998 Environmental As
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SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCALE GOLD ... - WWF

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