Advancing knowledge on artisanal gold mining
Advancing knowledge on artisanal gold mining
Our Objective
This project aims to generate and share knowledge on artisanal gold mining to support the transition toward a more responsible model in the Amazon forest. By focusing on scientific evidence, stakeholder engagement, and capacity-building, it contributes to the development of fairer, cleaner, and more sustainable gold supply chains.
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The project was launched on March 1, 2023 and is currently in progress.
Summary
In Madre de Dios, we support the development of a more responsible gold supply chain by collecting large-scale data on artisanal and small-scale miners who are formalized or in the process of formalizing. Using experimental surveys, we explore miners’ preferences around formalization policies and cleaner technologies, while developing scientific methods to trace mercury-free gold.
The project also promotes positive narratives around responsible mining, engages with Swiss stakeholders, and supports miners through training and knowledge exchange. It is led by an interdisciplinary global team—including biologists, climate scientists, and economists—in collaboration with the SAM Hub and the Political Economy, Land Systems, and Environmental Governance teams.
Project Connections
Part of the solutionscape
Maintaining multifunctional landscapes in a tropical forest frontier
Timeline
The global journey of Amazon gold
Project Update April 15, 2026
The Amazon Rainforest is commonly referred to as the “lungs of the Earth.” This vast, humid and green territory covers about 6.7 million square kilometers across nine countries in South America—roughly twice the size of India. While the forest is invaluable for its biome and as the home of Indigenous peoples, it remains under constant pressure from extractive activity. Gold mining, for example, both legal and illegal, has long been established in the region and drives an economy worth billions of dollars each year. Besides causing deforestation, the exploitation of the forest floor in search of gold often leaves behind heavily degraded land and releases mercury into waterways and the atmosphere. Globally, artisanal mining accounts for about one-third of all mercury released into the environment.Beyond the impact on nature, gold mining also causes undeniable social harm. Miners themselves are directly affected by mercury vapors that emerge during the process, causing serious short-term and long-term health effects, including neurological disorders and kidney damage. At the same time, for many people involved, mining remains one of the few viable ways to earn an income and support their families, as other alternatives are scarce.Because much of the gold mining in Madre de Dios is informal or illegal and therefore not fully captured in official statistics, estimates remain imprecise. Still, they suggest that the sector is worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year and may account for around 70% of the local economy. Yet the challenges linked to gold mining cannot be understood from a purely local perspective. They are complex, multifaceted, and fundamentally global. It sits within a wider system that extends beyond immediate territorial context, livelihoods, and environmental degradation. It includes broader regulatory challenges, violence and organized crime, international gold markets, and global supply chains, to name a few. In this series of texts and interviews, we take a closer look at the reality of gold mining in Peru’s Madre de Dios region and the international demand it feeds. By presenting a diverse range of perspectives, we aim to highlight the current situation on the ground and connect local and global approaches used to shape new solutions.
The history of mining in the Madre de Dios region
Project Update March 16, 2026
To better understand the history of gold mining in Peru’s Amazonian region of Madre de Dios — as well as its economic significance and social and environmental challenges — we spoke with Alejandro Portillo, Research Associate at the Wyss Academy, who has extensive experience working on mining and sustainability in the Peruvian Amazon.In this interview, Alejandro walks us through how gold mining took root in Madre de Dios, explains the critical differences between legal, informal, and illegal mining, and unpacks why mining has become such a central livelihood for tens of thousands of people in the region. He also sheds light on the profound environmental and health impacts of mercury use, the social consequences for local communities, and the structural barriers that make responsible mining difficult to scale.Finally, Alejandro reflects on what a fairer and more responsible mining sector could look like — from mercury-free technologies to improved labor conditions and access to formal markets — and why meaningful change requires aligning local realities with global demand.
The price of gold and good practices in artisanal mining
Project Update February 24, 2026
High gold prices are increasingly portrayed as an obstacle to more responsible mining. But the high price of gold is not the problem; it is a spotlight that reveals where the system was already failing. This is especially evident now, when gold has surpassed USD 5,000 per ounce, reaching a historic record in January 2026. The usual argument is simple: price rises → greed increases → illegality grows. Labor economics and recent evidence from Madre de Dios, Peru, offer a different way to look at this. An upcoming report (coming soon) on the gold supply chain shows that the main bottlenecks are not moral attitudes or the price of mercury, but rather labor institutions and marketing constraints. In artisanal mining, in Madre de Dios, workers typically receive a fixed share of production (around 25%), labor costs represent a significant fraction of total costs, and hiring follows informal but stable rules. Mercury, by comparison, is cheap. When the price of gold rises, mining becomes more attractive (relative to other jobs) and more people enter the sector. However, formal (and in some cases certified) mining cannot grow quickly: access is limited, selling with invoices reduces net income and delays payments, and not all production can be placed in certified markets. Illegal and informal mining grow because, in practice, it is the only segment capable of absorbing this increase in labor demand. Seen this way, high prices do not prevent responsible practices.They reveal frictions: Social norms for profit sharing within concessions, where workers often receive a fixed proportion of production. These unwritten rules structure everyday incentives and mean that the benefits of technological or institutional changes are not always distributed equitably. Differences in incentives between workers and concession holders over who bears the costs of change, since formalization or the adoption of more responsible practices often involves more effort, learning, or risk for some, while the potential benefits accrue to others. Liquidity and marketing constraints under formality, because selling gold formally usually involves slower payments, fewer buyers, and greater administrative requirements, which reduces short-term available income—especially for those who depend on daily cash flow. If we diagnose the problem as greed, the response is greater control and punishment. If we understand it as a challenge of the labor market and productive organization, the response is different: expanding legal access, reducing marketing bottlenecks, and designing transitions in which workers credibly share in the benefits—especially during price booms. Responsible mining does not fail because the price of gold is high. It struggles when institutions adjust more slowly than markets.
Understanding artisanal gold mining through interdisciplinary research
Project Update December 15, 2025
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Amazon is often reduced to a shocking image: deforestation seen from above, polluted rivers, illegality. Dr. Fernando Fernández argues that this framing, while not wrong, is incomplete. Mining, he says, “is not only complex, but also urgent,” and approaching it from a single angle makes it easy to misunderstand both the problem and the people involved. Because the issue has many different dimensions and everyone has it's own problem definition; and these two combined make it really difficult to find solutions. The situation blocks any dialogue to find a solution, as the miners will have a proposal, the government another one, the researchers another one – which leave us without a shared vision to find a solution.Dr. Fernando Fernández is a senior research scientist at the Wyss Academy, focusing on political economy and environmental governance. He leads an interdisciplinary research project on artisanal gold mining and its challenges in Madre de Dios, Peru. Rather than treating mining solely as an environmental issue, he approaches it as a system shaped by incentives, risks, regulations, technologies, and human behavior. By embracing the complexity of the system, he steers clear of solutions that look elegant on paper but fail in practice.
Gold beyond the gold mines
Project Update September 15, 2025
Gold mining is often framed as a local problem—something that happens “somewhere else,” in remote areas, informal camps, or deep in the forest. In an interview with Martina Burger, a research associate at the Wyss Academy, this framing is challenged from the outset. While “the issue manifests locally,” she explains, extraction is only one part of the broader gold value chain and of a far more complex system.With a background in climate science, Martina now examines the gold supply chain from a holistic perspective. Her research traces the journey of gold from its point of extraction, such as artisanal mines in Madre de Dios, Peru, to refineries, banks, and luxury industries in Switzerland. In her work, these places are directly connected, not only through the exchange of a commodity, but also through a web of economic, political, and social relationships that shape the impacts of gold along the entire chain.
Gold Mining: an urgent issue
Project Update July 15, 2025
Covering roughly 8 million hectares, Tambopata province in Peru is considered one of the country’s most biodiverse regions. Although more than half of the region is formally protected, the landscape has long been shaped by human settlement and economic activity. Deforestation driven by extractive industries remains the main threat, historically from logging and forest management, combined with agricultural expansion, and increasingly from alluvial gold mining, all of which contribute to forest loss and significant ecosystem degradation.In this scenario, Miguel Saraiva, the Director of the Wyss Academy's Hub South America is clear from the start: the work carried by him and his team does not begin with ideals, but with reality. “What we try to demonstrate,” he explains, “is that it is possible, with knowledge and targeted interventions, to transform a relationship of conflict between society and nature into one where both can win — where we can conserve nature while also guaranteeing people’s well-being.”
Working gold legally: a miner’s perspective
Project Update June 17, 2025
Lucila H. Ampuero is a formal gold miner from Playa Marta, in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, and one of the many women who play a central role in the region’s artisanal and small-scale mining sector. Her story reflects both the long-standing traditions of gold mining in the Amazon and the slow, demanding transition toward more responsible and formal practices.In this interview, Lucila shares her personal experience with formalization and the shift away from mercury-based gold extraction. Having worked for years with mercury — as most miners in the region historically have — she explains why she decided to adopt a mercury-free gravity table and what that change has meant for her work, her health, and her sense of pride as a miner. Her reflections reveal both the practical challenges of changing mining practices and the relief that comes with knowing she can continue working without being labeled an environmental polluter.Beyond technology, Lucila speaks about what mining means to her and her community: the sacrifices involved, the deep connection to the land, and the responsibility of providing dignified work for dozens of families. She also highlights the structural barriers miners face when trying to formalize — from high operating costs to limited institutional support — and why many miners struggle to make the transition, even when they want to.Lucila’s testimony offers a powerful reminder that responsible mining is not only about technology or regulation, but about people, livelihoods, and long-term visions for life in Madre de Dios.
Changing mining by changing the narrative
Project Update May 13, 2025
When Dr. Matteo Grigoletto speaks about artisanal gold mining in Madre de Dios, he begins by widening the frame. The region is “a hub of biodiversity, not only for Peru but for the entire world,” he explains. Yet this extraordinary ecosystem is increasingly under pressure from the expansion of extractive activities.Grigoletto, who wrote his PhD on the political economy of gold mining in Madre de Dios, notes that compared to some other industries, the deforestation directly caused by gold mining can be less extensive than that linked to activities such as cattle ranching. However, gold mining poses another serious threat: the use of mercury, a toxic substance that contaminates ecosystems and harms human health.In Madre de Dios, gold is traditionally extracted using mercury to bind fine gold particles from river sediment. When the amalgam is burned, mercury vapors are released and “end up in water, in the forest, and so on.”, he explains. “Miners are aware of this for the most part, and they are aware that there are alternatives,” yet adoption of these different technologies and clean solutions remains limited.
Governance study in Peru shows: Protected areas most effective at conservation
Project Update April 29, 2024
What kind of nature conservation has real impact? And how can we best organise our interventions accordingly? To answer these questions, Dr Pablo Negret from the Wyss Academy's Land Systems and Sustainability Transformations research team, in collaboration with the Wyss Academy’s Hub South America, investigated the impact of different forms of governance on forest loss in the Peruvian Amazon - as well as the associated CO2 emissions. The governance systems analysed include nature reserves, Indigenous territories and concessions for non-timber forest products. The study covers the period between 2000 and 2021 and also analyses logging and mining concessions for comparison. The method: As part of a counterfactual analysis, scenarios without the governance systems described were simulated in order to understand their impact on forest loss and CO2 emissions. The study shows that protected areas are most effective in preventing forest loss, but also provides robust evidence for the long-term positive impact of possible alternative conservation measures - i.e. Indigenous territories or non-timber forest product concessions. These findings are essential for achieving various goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Advancing Responsible Gold Mining: Narratives and Innovations in Peru
Project Update April 25, 2024
In 2023, working together with the Hub South America, the Political Economy and Sustainable Development team made significant strides in promoting responsible gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru. Through stakeholder workshops held in Peru and Switzerland, they brought together miners, indigenous people, and experts, to foster future collaborations. They have also discovered misconceptions about mining and how it has influenced past decisions made by the private sector, NGOs, and governments. Based on these findings, the research team designed the project called "Narrative Intervention: The Case of Production Technology for Gold Mining in Peru," which aims to explore the influence of narratives on the adoption of clean technologies for mining among artisanal miners in the Peruvian Amazon, specifically in the Madre de Dios region. This study is based on the working paper "Analyzing Climate Change Policy Narratives with the Character-Role Narrative Framework," written by Prof. Dr. Kai Gehring and the PhD Researcher Matteo Grigoletto. To address this issue, the team will use a lab-in-the-field experiment to combine the precision of laboratory experiments with the realism of field experiments. They will promote an aspirational narrative embedded in videos to overcome psychological barriers and facilitate behavioral change. This study is conducted by the PhD Researcher Matteo Grigoletto and Dr. Fernando Fernandez, with the local support of Alejandro Portillo, a research associate at the Hub South America.
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