CSF Works on Governmental Use of the Mining Impacts Calculator

At an event held in Lima, authorities from different countries exchanged experiences on the use of the tool in the fight against illegal mining across the Amazon

Lima, Peru, March 2023: Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) led a workshop to present the Mining Impacts Calculator to authorities from Peru and Colombia, to which the tool has been adapted. During the event, government representatives from each country shared successful strategies for combating illegal gold mining throughout the Amazon region and shared experiences from the use of the Calculator in Brazil. You can watch a recording of the event here.

Authorities and representatives of Peruvian civil society participate in a panel during the event, held in March 2023, in Lima, Peru. Photo: Annie Morillo, CSF Peru.

By 2022, CSF had already adapted the tool from its primary use in Brazil to be effectively used in Colombia and Peru with support from the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL), under the leadership of World Bank and the support of Global Environment Facility (GEF). Immediately after adapting this technology, two other events were held to share the Calculator with technicians from the governments of these countries, representatives from civil society, and local and indigenous leaders. During both events, participants were able to discuss possibilities for joint multisectoral actions to address the environmental and social impacts of illegal mining, and could learn the basics of the tool's functionalities.

This year's meeting was a follow-up to those initial events. The meeting in Lima was designed for Public Ministry officials from Brazil and Peru Attorneys who are interested in using the Calculator in governmental prevention of illegal mining.

According to Julio Guzmán, Public Prosecutor for the Ministry of the Environment of Peru, the exchange was important for the institution to become aware of the possibilities of using tools for economic valuation of socio-environmental damages in criminal proceedings.

The Calculator in Brazil

The Mining Impacts Calculator was created in 2021 in partnership with the Attorney's Office of Brazil (MPF). The institution officially adopted the methodology through its Technical Report 694/2021 and has been using it in several claims for compensation of environmental and social damages, adding up to charges of more than R$ 10.6 billion in the few years since the tool was adopted.

In his presentation during the event in Lima, the Republic Attorney Gustavo Alcântara brought examples of one of these claims – a survey carried out in partnership with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) that allowed the attorneys to verify that, from the production of 30.4 tons of gold in the state from Pará, in the period from 2019 to 2020, approximately 17.7 tons (58.4%) were extracted with false indication of origin. The data led the MPF to identify that three securities distributors were the main buyers of gold of illegal origin from the southwest of Pará, where the indigenous lands of the Munduruku and Kayapó peoples are located.

“The health problems resulting from mercury affect not only the populations close to the mines, but also those more distant. For this reason, in addition to repression, it is essential that we seek compensation for the damage caused”, highlighted Alcântara. The MPF expert in Economics, José Jorge Júnior, who participated in the creation of the Calculator and was also present at the event in Lima, explained that the tool has given more agility and effectiveness to the expert studies that subsidize the MPF's work in this search for financial reparation by all actors participating in the ore extraction and purchase.

In addition to MPF representatives, civil servants from other Brazilian institutions that collaborated in the elaboration of the tool and have been using the tool in their activities also participated in the meeting, such as the Federal Police (PF), the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).

Ana Claudia Vasconcellos, researcher at Fiocruz, spoke about the political and social context of mining in Brazil. “Data from 2020 reveal that 93.7% of the mines in Brazil are in the Amazon, 9.3% of them in Indigenous Lands and 40.7% in Environmental Conservation Units. In other words, more than 50% of mining in the Amazon is illegal”, she explained, highlighting the importance of tools that help governments in combating this illegals activity, which has increased alarmingly in recent years.

Fernanda Ronchi, a PF expert, presented on the "Ouro Alvo" project, still under development, which aims to map the types of gold existing in the country and, thus, identify whether its origin is from a legalized extraction location or not. This will help the PF to produce indisputable evidence of the possible illegal origin of the ore, even when the documentation apparently proves to be legal. This project is in addition to other efforts by the corporation to ensure more effectiveness in anti-mining investigations, such as the adoption of the use of the Calculator beginning in June 2022.

In addition to its use in criminal proceedings, Ibama's substitute coordinator for Environmental Recovery, Raquel Lacerda, exemplified the usefulness of the Mining Impact Calculator in administrative spheres. In Brazil, this agency is responsible for controlling illegal activity in federal areas through the application of administrative fines, an activity in which the Institute envisages the application of the Calculator. Lacerda pointed out that the tool can help in the characterization of environmental damage, in addition to providing support for establishing more precise compensatory solutions for irreversible damage.

Representatives of Brazilian institutions presented the methodology and use cases of the Mining Impacts Calculator during the event. Photo: Annie Morillo, CSF Peru.

Calculator 2.0 website launch

In addition to facilitating dialogue between institutions, the event also launched version 2.0 of the Mining Impacts Calculator. Created in 2021, the Calculator gained a new website, with more features and revised methodology.

In this new version, it is possible to add to the calculation such variables as the use of a retort (technology used to mitigate the effect of mercury in the atmosphere), motor power (for impacts caused by dredge mining), and it is not possible to correct values with inflation relative to the current year. An update of the methodology on the impact of mercury on the health of local populations was carried out, listing new academic references that make the calculation more accurate.

The accessibility of the calculator’s results has also been updated. New graphics facilitate the understanding of the calculated figures and the descriptions are customized according to the purpose of the research.

“Over the two years since the launch of the Calculator, we have perfected its methodology and endorsed it with the scientific community by publishing two articles in important international journals. This new version, therefore, not only represents an advance in the usability of the site, but an improvement of the tool in terms of data credibility”, says Pedro Gasparinetti, director of CSF Brasil.