planetGOLD In Review - Event Recording

planetGOLD In Review - Event Recording

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good morning good afternoon good evening  we see many many people streaming in   and we are about to begin today's event  so over to my colleague jennifer to start making a world of difference to transition  small-scale miners around the world   to mercury-free technologies to provide  for themselves and their families   in a better cleaner and safer way and to make the  connections all through the global supply chain   from miners to formal markets to refiners  to jewelers and electronics and all the way   to you and me as consumers  that is what planetGOLD does   ladies and gentlemen good morning good day  good evening my name is claudia ten have. i   join you from the secretariat of the minamata  convention on mercury here in geneva where i   am the senior policy and coordination officer it  is my honor to take you through today's program   to review and celebrate planetGOLD a signature  project of the global environment facility   to tackle one of the largest mercury emission  sources covered by the minamata convention   the mercury emitted and released by small scale  and artisanal gold miners planetGOLD led by the   united nations environment program unep with the  united nations industrial development organization   unido and the united nations development programme  undp and conservation international is a dynamic   and growing program two years on from the launch  of the program in london we are coming together   today again this time virtually from across the  globe to peak into what has been achieved so far   and to look forward to what is coming up as the  next chapter in planetGOLD we are joined today   by a remarkable set of speakers presenters  and some guests from key organizations   and key governments who each in their own sphere  are leading a key part of this transformational   and global endeavor furthermore what  makes today's event particularly special   is that we will also connect directly to miners  from planet gold that have already been working   with planet gold to reflect on their experiences  and particularly to share what they hope for   and aspire to through the planetGOLD initiative  and right at the end we have some news hot off   the press a very special announcement so do stay  tuned but before we dive in i have been asked to   highlight two short housekeeping matters firstly  the one is that this event is being recorded   and secondly you are able to follow the  event in english french spanish and mongolian   just toggle to one of the other languages at  the bottom of your screen under interpretation   button if you would like and with that  i've made the introduction but to give   you an even deeper dive into planetGOLD than  the video allowed us to do at the beginning   it is my great pleasure to hand the floor over  to my colleague ludovic bernardo to situate us   where we are today on planetGOLD ludo has been  conceptually and programmatically leading the work   on artisanal and small-scale gold mining at unep  with all the colleagues at GEF and elsewhere   too for some years and he is the planetGOLD  phase one program manager over to you ludo thank you claudia and good morning good  afternoon and good evening to the participants i will provide you with an  overview of the planetGOLD program   but also some key aspects some highlights of the  of the implementation to date but first i wanted   to go and explain so what is planetGOLD as  you know it's a GEF supported and developed   program large program that was developed in  collaboration as was mentioned between unep   unido undp and conservation international  at GEF agencies but many other partners   also contributed to the development. GOLD is an  acronym for in our case it stands for the global   opportunities for the long-term development of  the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector   next slide please so why do we work on this  sector and why do we focus specifically   on on this issue the sector is a global issue  it's active in 80 countries around the world   employing 10 to 20 million miners it's a huge  workforce including a lot of women and children   so it has a lot of social implications  and social issues that we have to address   it is a very important source of livelihood in  rural areas and very and often very remote areas   where they are simply not alternative livelihood  options so for the miners it's important to to be   able to produce gold in a sustainable and safe  way so that they can sustain the livelihood of   themselves and their families however it is often  associated with negative social impact as i've   just said but also uh heavy environmental impacts  it's a sector that has a lot of impact as you can   imagine on land degradation on river siltation  because they work very close to um to watercourses   but also uh it is the largest user is the sector  is the largest user and a emitter of mercury to   the environment next slide please so that's why  we develop planetGOLD because of the mercury issue   and reducing mercury emissions from the sector  as mandated by the minamata convention on mercury   which has an article dedicated to this sector  at the moment uh planetGoLD is operational in   nine countries available here on the map but  we are working uh yeah adding up new countries   there's a new set of eight countries uh that  are um developing their projects that will come   online um this year hopefully uh and that will be  joined also by another group of countries later on   so it will become a really a real family of  of of projects countries from which we can   really collaborate and work together to achieve  mercury reduction um thank you next slide please   so the planetGOLD program is organized around  four components um the first one is formalization   we need to work with formalized miners and  mining association if we are to make a difference   if we are to really uh make sustainable changes  of in the sector in the phase one of planet gold   we worked with countries that had started  formalization this is no longer the case   for the new phases as we will discuss so this  is an important aspect the second component   was really developed for the planetGOLD program  and is really innovative compared to the previous   activities was the focus and is the focus on  access to finance and access to formal markets   miners need to be able to find the funds needed to  buy the proper equipment so that they can improve   their gold recovery from the current state of  around 30 percent of gold meaning they're losing   at the moment 70 of gold to the tailings and to  the environment to better techniques that will   allow them to recover much more accessing finance  is important to get the proper equipment but also   accessing formal markets and working on shortening  value chain so that miners get the best price they   can for the gold the gold that can at the mining  site uh be very similar and very close to the the   london based metal association uh official gold  price so that's that's a unique uh commodity in   that sense and that's what i meant by transferring  wealth to the to the poor communities gold has   this ability of having a very high price at the  producing site and then we we have a component of   course on improved technologies that's what we've  been doing all these years in the past uh working   on exclusively mercury-free technology  to extract gold and a large component on   building knowledge management awareness phrasing  and reaching out to stakeholders next slide please so this is done through the program advisory group  and here are a number and a selected number of our   advisors and as you can see we have  gold refiners we have gold users   gold consumers on board and that have helped us  they have helped us a great deal over the last   two years to define the gold criteria to which  the the the gold produced from the project sites   will be able to access international markets next  slide please so uh to give you a brief overview of   what has been done so far so we've been the all  the projects have been active for the last two   years uh and actually uh this month marks the  second year anniversary of our official launch   in london at the goldsmith's center in february  2019 unfortunately we can't you cannot meet   in person this time but i think it's important  that we show the key activities that have been   undertaken in spite of the pandemic that has hit  us uh for the last 12 months next slide please so first on formalization the first component as  you can see we've worked in all the countries in   review of the legal framework uh to propose  changes that are needed to really support   the formalization of the of the program and  we have identified already in many countries   mining associations that will help us reach out  to the miners and multiply to other sites as well   training has started also to being provided next  slide please on the access to finance aspect   again quite a bit of progress has been made um to  on especially on the outreach to finance entities   to raise uh interest to train um and to  to um to train the finance institutions   on how they can interact with this particular  sector we have already signed some agreements   in many countries including load application loan  applications assistance provided next slide please for mercury free technologies um this is as also  um scenario where we've done a lot of projects   in many countries this is not surprising this is  what we've all been doing for the last 20 years   this is the the more ongoing  component in the program if you want   uh so sites assessment has been done in all  countries we've held focus group discussions   with the miners to ensure that they're they're  ready to take on board the new technology and for   that we really insist on the increased recovery  of the of the new technologies and the plants   and the process systems have been identified  in many countries already next slide please and finally on access to markets so that goes  back a bit to the slide on the the program   advisory group we've developed the planet goal  criteria together with gold buyers gold refiners   to ensure that the gold produced by the program  will find its way in the international markets um   we've built capacity at the national level on due  diligence to um so that the intern the gold buyers   have the assurance that the goal has been produced  according to the criteria that we've set out   we've done gold trade and policy recommendations  in a number of countries and also supply chain   mapping to help us streamline this supply chain  again to improve the the gold buying price at   the at the mining site um so that that's the the  last of the the the key highlights that we wanted   to um to showcase next slide please but if you  want to have more information in much more detail   we suggest that you can have a look at the annual  progress report of the program which is posted on   our the planet gold program website um  as well as a shorter executive summary   um that that is uh that's providing a snapshot  of the progress of the program over the last   two years of implementation these reports are  currently available in english but we are doing   the translation into spanish and french next slide  please and uh finally of course the planet gold as   a lot of other resources that we we suggest that  you can um uh visit and download including guides   that were provided by the global component of the  planet gold on improving access to formal finance   this takes on from other sectors the examples of  other sectors but also other partners that are   not involved directly in the program but that do  provide um guidance and assistance and of course   the planet goal criteria which as much i have  mentioned already uh i won't take too much more of   your time uh i think it's best often the progress  is best heard from the people who are in the field   uh and we do have now a video from our program  managers of the eight countries the nine countries   that will speak in their own words about  the program progress so thank you very much reflections and perspectives on the past two  years from kenya burkina faso colombia ecuador   guyana indonesia mongolia peru and the  philippines from around the world with   these insights and the rich images fresh in our  mind let me turn to a very distinguished panel   to take us a bit deeper on mercury globally  and also mercury at the national level   linking artisanal and small-scale  gold mining all the way up   the supply and even value chain and particularly  on the role of planet gold in this regard   for this we are joined from costa rica by  carlos manuel rodriguez ceo and chairperson   of the global environment facility good morning to  you carlos manuel from jakarta rosa ratnavati good   evening ma'am the president of the minamata  convention cop4 and also a director general   in the ministry of environment and forestry in  indonesia it's lovely to have you with us today   from geneva monika stankiewicz executive  secretary of the minamata convention on mercury   we also have carrie george vice president and head  of sustainability and impact of everledger and   from washington good morning to you rob  wing u.s alternate jeff council member   of the department of state good morning  good afternoon good evening to all of you   and let me begin with carlos manuel planetGOLD was  one of the first large programs funded by the GEF   in the chemical and waste vocal area that instead  of going the route of individual country projects   decided to create an interconnected program um  can you reflect on the value that the GEF took in   this type of pragmatic approach now both as you're  the ceo of GEF but also given your long and direct   experience at the national level as former  environment minister over to you carlos manuel   well thank you so much uh claudia it is a great  pleasure to be here joined by monica rosa rob and and um you know greetings from from costa rica um  i mean the peninsula diosa which is in the heart   of the gold mining small gun gold mining and the  end the center has been our historical conflict   within conservation in this case the protection  of national uh kokoba national park and illegal   gold mining because the park was is on top of  a huge um geological of gold reservoir and um   you know for since 1985 and then as a minister  of environment and in mining because in costa   rica the minister of our environment is  also the minister of energy and mining   which is this is very important claudia one  one topic that as we look forward in terms   of our initiatives we need to really understand  which is the right institutional framework that   we need to have in order to generate  more impact in our effort to move to   move from worse um practices uh to best practices  all the way to uh technologies that are mercury   free here here you see a couple of photos um i'm  the guy with the right with the white shirt on   on the right hand side that and that on my right  hand is a hilberto he's the he's a lead park   ranger in corcoval national park that was um like  a month before the pandemic in probably january   2020 you know i was uh participating in a um  anti-illegal uh mining in kokomo national park on   the on the left-hand side you see the miners that  uh we captured doing illegal mining in in the park   i have done i have participated probably in 12 um  operations of illegal mining in protected areas   in costa rica since 1985 when i was 25 years  old i was a young guy helping create the park   and two things are very clear to me one  is small artisanal miners they don't die   out of age they die very soon for whatever  reasons it can be healthy related issues or it   can be violence but that's a fact and the second  thing that i have learned through 30 years of   working with legal and illegal small-scale mining  is that they never get out of their poverty status   condition they never nobody makes a good living  out of these um activities and um and uh yes   as i remember all of this i remember all of these  you know what i see here is a it's a human crisis   uh this is you know the the big tech take away  message of my experience as foreign minister of   mining in dealing with small artisanal is it's  a human crisis what is that it's a human crisis   particularly nowadays that and in many places  uh could be impacted uh many of the work that we   did around you know generating jobs out of our  nature-based tourism and here where i am right   now also it's a good example because the even  though most of those miners are 25 to 35 years old   the sons of the old miners in the park are tourist  guides right now and because of the pandemic   they were jobless and what happened they went once  more with illegal mining in the box so this is   illegal mining on the park also we had i had a lot  of experience in in illegal mining in other places   you know crucitas was uh was his easter side  in the border of nicaragua costa rica banned   industrial open pit gold mining uh but we never  prepare ourselves to ex spontaneous illegal thumb   mining and as we pass this regulation uh a small  a lot of informal miners coming from nicaragua   invade this side in the end began doing illegal  mining and the government was totally incapable   to dealing with this um the situation and the  same thing that you see in the in the amazon basin   at a smaller scale of course but as a minister i  was unable claudia to deal with the mercury issue   totally i i was not trying to deal with it  i was unable to track it the mercury i knew   was coming from mexico which were the routes i i  didn't had trained people to do the enforcement   but most importantly because i i even though i  had participated a lot on enforcement activities   to implement the environmental law and i am a  strong believer of the environmental rule of   law this is a human element and people do do  these activities based on their needs or the   lack of opportunities so we with governments we  need to come up and be able to present solutions   and and one key two key elements in this other  side were key lessons that i want to bring um   into the our planetGOLD effort which is one is how  do we formalize them we need to formalize them and   it's not as yeah as you know sending a sociologist  or an expert to gather them and make a coop   it is way complicated because individualism  is within the heart of what they do they are   totally exploited by somebody else and you  know these illegal mining activities are   really associated to drug trafficking human trade  uh and diseases um you know malaria was something   new to us in 50 years it was brought by illegal  immigrants and i finished with my last point here   claudia which is the fact that you know when i  as a minister i began doing sampling of the soil   and the waters on on mercury it was extremely  extremely high and dangerous and i didn't have   any as garment any capacity to go and clean up  the site and of course as a minister i got the   you know the political opposition and the congress  and many others on my neck asking for short-term   magical solutions there are no short-term magical  solutions when you deal with small-scale artisanal   gold mining there are not short-term solutions so  here are two messages uh for for for today one is   uh you know um we need to understand which  are the right institutional frameworks uh   we need to promote at the country level to  be able to have long-term lasting solutions   this is to say that the ministers of environment  and the ministers of health are the ones who are   really interested in this issue not necessarily  the ministers of mining and in the case of costa   rica where you had mining any environment in the  same agency under the same minister things were   relatively easier than what i saw in nicaragua or  what i saw in the rest of latin america where you   got a minister of mining that is only thinking on  industrial large-scale money and those issues are   regarding artisanal or things that are are kind  of politically uh alone and then how do you go   from dealing with a mercury um uh problem on  the side to a mercury free technology i mean   that process we need to be right there with the  countries helping them going from worst practices   uh to best practices and then um into mercury free  technology use uh so i i want to finalize that um   yeah we need to put attention to those who are way  beyond informality which are in the illegal realm   uh risking their lives and um working under  extreme conditions where human rights are not   respected and they are totally splitted because  yes we were because for us in these um last few   years in this partnership which by the way has  been extremely successful we've been working   with those group that has been kind of easily  accessible because they are there they are not   formal because they don't have a legal condition  but uh they are easy easy to find and engage i'm   also thinking on those who are deep in the jungle  uh out of any possibility for us to really out out   do outreaching and contacting we need to  bring them together we need to have a strategy   as we look forward so thank you so much claudia  for the opportunity thank you very much manuel um   also in particular for shaping it in in the  pictures that you showed in terms of what it   looks like and how it was not only in costa  rica but also in the neighboring countries   so with your permission if i may take us across  the globe to indonesia to a large country one   of the largest in the world the third largest  asian country a very diverse country as well   your country is part of planet gold we  would love to know a bit more about um how   do you reflect currently on on planet gold and  its ability to help indonesia with this mammoth   challenge and the benefits that you can see for  your country please rosa thank you very much for   your question claudia first of all allow me to say  good evening from jakarta and good morning good   afternoon to all of you i would like to extend my  sincere gratitude to the organizers of this event   for inviting me to this important and timely  event it is my great honor to join with this   distinguished panel of experts indonesia is  thankful to be selected as one of nine partner   countries of planetGOLD third world plays an  essential role to support countries commitments   to the minamata convention on mercury  particularly in eliminating mercury   from the supply chain of good from asgm sector  the planetGOLD project in indonesia called   the integrated sound management of mercury in  indonesia's asgm, or ISMIA, has directly supported   indonesia's attempts to eliminate the use of  mercury in 2019 the president of indonesia   issued a presidential decree on the national  action plan on mercury reduction and elimination   the decree sets a target to eliminate  mercury from asgm sector by 2025   in that context the gold izmir project has  assisted us a lot to achieve that target   the project helped us formulate regional action  plans for the reduction and elimination of mercury   at the provincial and regency level provide inputs  on technical radio regulation on asgm sector   develop mercury free technology create innovative  finance models provide capacity building to miners   and gradually assist them towards formalization  the current pandemic created some challenges in   delivering the outcome of ismia project  in a timely manner site visa field work   project monitoring and engagement activities have  become more difficult with travel restrictions   i and my colleagues at the indonesian ministry  of environment and forestry have discussed these   challenges intensively with unbp indonesia office  who is responsible for the implementation of   planet code project in the country i would like  to ensure that the government of indonesia is   committed to supporting the project and helping  it become accomplished to the targets on time   the indonesia government will continuously  support the implementation of the project through   innovative ways in this difficult situation such  as pursuing online and face-to-face workshop   with strict health protocol and maximizing  local government roles in supporting activities   at six project sites across indonesia  the government also assists undp   in ensuring that the process of permit application  to implement this project such as waste management   permit environmental impact analytical permit  and building permit are fully fulfilled   i believe that by the end of 2023 when the ismia  project will end we will be able to achieve   significant progress in many areas such  as more robust regulatory framework   more comprehensive capacity building plans and  guidelines for artisanal miners financial schemes   to support transition towards mercury free  technology and formalization of artisanal miners   gender mainstream in scm communities and the  creation of alternative social economic activities   for asgm miners those achievements will provide a  strong basis for indonesia to progressively move   towards a more rigorous approach and policy to  eliminate the use of mercury in astm sector and   in line with our national action plan and in  accordance with the minamata convention thank you   thank you very much rosa and following on from  carlos manuel you provided in fact that government   view back again in terms of how to try to look  at all of the different challenges that that face   any person or any government trying to address  what are legitimate livelihoods but but also   important constraints and challenges thank  you very much rosa this allows me now to   go a bit closer to home which is to invite monica  the executive secretary of the convention on   mercury to ask monica if you could  reflect um how the program such as uh   planetGOLD supports the convention overall or  put differently how can the work of that program   complement also the work of the secretariat  to support parties please monika thank you so much claudia good day uh thank you  so much for the event and for having me to speak   it's a really pleasure to be with you and let me  recognize my co-panelist carlos manuel thank you   so much for sharing your professional  experience but also personal thoughts   and thank you madam president for your commitment  and indonesian commitment to the project   and to the convention and for leading the way and  i'm looking forward to hearing uh presentation   and contributions from carrie and rob today in  the morning i actually watched the video that you   ludovic has been showing us today and as it often  happened when working remotely my six-year-old son   heard me watching something and he came in and  it was the first time actually where he showed   a real interest in what i do professionally  i was able to explain which are the countries   what's happening on the pictures are the  people it was a really special moment for me   so i would like to really thank not only for this  magnificent material but also for all the work of   the agencies of the countries and all the people  involved in the program you are really making   a real difference and i'm really honored to be  part of this journey back to your question claudia   the global environmental facility is set forth in  the convention as part of our financial mechanism   and carlos manuel you have heard me saying it but  the convention and the GEF is a perfect match on   one hand we have a blueprint with a well thought  through and actionable measures and on the other   hand we have a funding mechanism that enables  a major and transformative change and we both   both of those wants to make the the world a better  place to live as secretariat we work very closely   with the GEF secretariat and agencies to ensure  that all of its minamata convention investments   are completely in line with the treaty and with  the needs that we are hearing from the parties   i see planet gold is a very good example of a  program that is fully in line with our convention   as many you know the convention intentionally  addressed the use of mercury in artisanal and   small scale mining in a flexible and non-punitive  way understanding that if the convention simply   banned the use of mercury in asgm the risky work  would be driven further underground and that's not   that would not get us anywhere many people are  earning their livelihood from this work so the   convention calls for a real and lasting change and  that is what the planetGOLD is working to deliver   programs like planetGOLD provide practical  examples and experiences to parties   that are now working on strategies under  the national action plans madam president   provided one example each party that has a sgm  that is more than insignificant is required by the   convention to put in place national action plan  and we have so far in the secretariat received 11   such plans and the parties are not only see  they need to implement them but they really   do so so the action plan is not a document that  is put on shelf or on a website and that's it   and the visible progress within the planet  gold creates an incentive for other parties   to get the national action plans in  order as no one wants to be left behind   and there is also a close relationship between  the planetGOLDand the global mercury partnership   so we can continue to use the existing  well-established multi-stakeholder partnership   and platform to further enhance the  reach of the program's dissemination   and to conclude claudia let me say that the  investments such as within the planet gold move us   forward collectively and globally to meet the goal  of the convention which is to protect the human   health and the environment from the emissions and  releases of anthropogenic mercury thank you thank   you very much monika and you've made the perfect  link in many ways to the next speaker so thank   you very much for that um speaking of making the  links and drawing in all the different sectors   um carrie may i turn to you next to double click  us into the perspective from the private sector   you've been engaged in a response in responsible  sourcing at both an electronics company and also   at jura and so you have first-hand experience  with the challenges but also the opportunities   to establish responsible trusted traceable supply  chains of a given resource in our case now gold   from the point of view of the buyer from your  point of view from the private sector what are   the most important actions that planet gold can  take or is taking to facilitate this be very   grateful to hear your views over to you absolutely  um it's a pleasure to be here particularly among   such distinguished panelists and hearing their  contributions this work is absolutely essential   um a little background uh so as you said i've  been in the electronics industry at apple for   over five years and then the jewelry industry  for several years now but particularly working   at a key star jewelry company in san francisco  that has quite a presence particularly among new   millennial buyers in an industry where a lot  of buyers are going to other consumer goods   as such i've had a good experience with what does  it take to actually bring new material into the   market and continually buy from what could be  considered in many companies a high-risk sector   gold and particular artisanally mine gold   is one that buyers them in the downstream  uh let's say a company like apple   or brilliant earth or other jewelers still  don't know how to buy effectively from the most   legitimate or the most progressive organizations  fair mind and fair trade has not grown enough   to be able to meet market demand and nor has there  been an approach that allows for that scaling   so i'm going to name a couple of key points that  i think were really critical areas for us to be   able to address other material supply chains and  i think could be brought into gold as you guys   are looking for being able to demonstrate planet  gold progress and particularly mercury reduction   and and promote and incentivize those actors  in in the field to actually continue with that   work there needs to be a link that they're getting  the incentives that match the end consumer demands   right now the biggest organizations that are  managing gold uh certifications so from a conflict   minerals perspective or from an anti-corruption  or know your consumer you can't search by mercury   so that's a problem there should be linkages with  these main actors um that was a critical tipping   point in terms of the material uh sourcing where  we started having a different types of let's say   in a technical world interoperability among tools  and technologies but in this case among standards   and projects on the ground with compliance  activities that are maybe midstream it seems   very distant it's a critical link that has to be  made and if we can start selecting by that you'll   see a massive shift in terms of downstream  producers understanding of these issues   and their interest in them and then that can go  into future co-development with uh and co-funding   projects um with uh GEF and other organizations  that are working on these things in the field   i would uh encourage that in a in a way that can  be done and coordinated among those organizations   among the leading companies that have already done  projects on gold um and activities and we'll see a   consortium and collaborative effect from that  moving forward from that what we also see is   different types of equivalencies among programs  it's very overwhelming for companies downstream to   try to purchase from so many different types of  artisanal mining projects they don't know where   to um engage and actually the first time i came  got involved and started connecting with the GEF   was in an effort to do some sort of co-funding  and understand where i could target um   there can be more done there because  there's a lot of companies just wanting to   put their money where their mouth is so to speak  in terms of this work and being able to find the   right types of facilities to do that um that  can actually influence their supply chain will   be important and finally putting some of the terms  in language that will make sense for companies   that they're already having to do so sustainable  development goals making those impact data   possible making it something that can be  digested easily um so really long reports are not   particularly welcomed all the time in the private  sector so we need to simplify simplify simplify   and make it just something that can be done as  part of normal operations um but those are just   a few high-level uh aspects i think would  be a really important and we're looking at   this from both a technology perspective at  everledger as well as a different type of   government and private sector partnership  opportunity with different companies in different   fields but when we look at different ways to  manage and pull in data whether that be in a   narrative report or different impact metrics or  sensor data that can be done in the future i think   we can see some real scaling effects with this  type of public-private partnership and technology   i'll hand it back over to you perfect carrie you  finished on partnerships and that's exactly where   i wanted to pick up the ball and throw it over to  rob rob the united states has had a long history   of supporting work on reducing global mercury  pollution in general but also asgm in particular   and his first party to the minamata  convention i remember that day very well   why is mercury so important to your  government and how does planet gold   complement your bilateral efforts over to you  rob no thank you very much and first i just want   to say thank you for having me as a panelist here  um and i'm super honored to be on this panel with   carlos manuel and rosa and monica and carrie  and also claudia you and ludovic it's just an   honor to to be here and to be able to talk about  the work we do in the u.s um on this issue um   it's a pleasure to be here with you for this  conversation about planetGOLD which has been   one of the flagship projects undertaken by  the GEF in support of the minamata convention   as you said the united states is proud to  have been the first country to join the   minamata convention on mercury which is an  excellent hands under monica's stewardship   we look forward to joining rosa and others at  the fourth conference of the party of minamata   hosted by the government of indonesia and we are  proud supporters of the GEF of the work that GEF   has done from the beginning in support of  implementation of the minamata convention   this enthusiasm carries over into our work with  us government in addition to participating in   the design of the original GEF gold program and  and now currently on the program advisory group   many u.s agencies including the state department  uscid and the environmental protection agency and   the department of labor and interior have been  actively working and collaborating on projects   in the asgm sector some of our bilateral regional  efforts on mercury like the mercury program when   running my office in the state department the  office of environmental quality are great places   to test new ideas and technologies relevant for  relevant for asgm develop relationships and build   capacity for example in suriname we are working  with two large-scale gold mining companies to   improve their working relationships with asgm  sector and testing out a a modular processing   equipment constructed specifically for alluvial  mining and which can be moved from one mining site   to another once the ore has been been exhausted  the planet gold program complements our efforts by   translating the most up-to-date scientific ideas  technologies and approaches into action within   the countries enrolled in the program by taking on  much of the capacity building work planetGOLD also   provides space for united states and other GEF  donors to launch projects that anticipate future   issues that will impact mercury use these donors  these these donor-led projects are in themselves   complementary to planet gold work and have  much more potential working from the planet   gold foundation and i think just to maybe more  directly answer your question i think in the   beginning you talked about some of the statistics  that 20% of gold comes from asgm and that   that there's asgm mining in 70 countries in the  world and um that um i can't remember the other   um you know that there's i think 45 million people  working in planetGOLD i don't have that statistic   written down in front of me or working on working  in this sector so it's an incredibly large sector   that cuts across the entire world and um you know  there's all sorts of issues that we've heard about   today that are you know important from from  all sorts of different perspectives for the us   for from a national security perspective to a um  to an economic development perspective and also a   lot of gold that gets released in the environment  ends up in the a lot of story mercury that gets   released into the environment ends up in the u.s  so there's all sorts of different reasons why this  

is important to us and why we're very proud to  be um the first party to the minamata convention   and that we continue to do our own bilateral work  and support planet gold so i'll stop there for now   i'm super short i hope that was helpful thank  you absolutely helpful and um just uh listening   to all of all of you it's just it's very very  clear that it requires many hands it requires   many heads and it requires quite a few hearts  to to put together such a multifaceted program   and then to take it into all these different  places whether it's in indonesia ozar or whether   it is colors manuel into the areas that that  or while you're closest to your your home um   so with this i just want to mention to everybody  we will hear a bit more from each of the panelists   um at the conclusion of the event but now if if  you allow me i would like to hand the floor to   the men and women who mine for a living from kenya  to indonesia to the philippines peru and mongolia   to each in their own words highlight their  hopes and their aspirations for planetGOLD while planetGOLD is a relatively young  program the GEF has had the foresight   to work on asgm programming for some 20 years  may i turn to uh director of the GEF evaluation   office to give us a short reflection on the GEF interventions in this sector over to you you have   thank you very much claudia and good morning  good afternoon uh good evening to everybody   i would first like to thank the  organizers for inviting me to this   important seminar which has been very interesting  to me as i'm sure it is um for all of all of the   participants i'm glad to have this opportunity  to say a few words about the evaluation of the   GEF interventions in the artisanal and  and gold a small scale gold mining sector   that my office the um gef independent evaluation  office recently conducted i'm also glad that the   evaluation did confirm some of the points that  have been made by the earlier interventions   the evaluation performed post-completion  assessments of outcomes for three medium-sized   projects from the GEF-5 period that is from  about 2010 to 2014 as claudia said there were   projects in this field much earlier than the  planetGOLD these projects were all focused on asgm   mercury reductions in many cases we found  that mercury use fell already during project   implementation and has continued to fall since  then which points to some encouraging signs of   sustainability having said that the switch  in these cases was largely from mercury to   cyanidation which is obviously not a technology  promoted by the GEF or planetGOLD for that matter   one common lesson that from these old projects was  that most miners struggle to access finance from   regular legal sources because the sector is not  formalized and is often associated with illegality   this makes the miners unable to invest in pro  project promoted non-mercury technologies even   if they wish to do so the gold program which for  the gef represented a significant increase in   investment in the asgm sector has responded  by making access to financing and markets its   largest component as we have heard so they are  testing the hypotheses that more financing will   lead to more transition to cleaner technologies  there has thus been notable learning from the past   experiences with old older GEF funded projects  in moving towards these newer interventions to promote broader adoption of its  work on access to financing the gf will   still have to expand its activities assisting  governments in implementation of formalization   policies in the artisanal and small-scale  gold mining sector broadly recognized as a   critical step for solving many  of the sectors problems overall   the artisanal and small-scale small gold mining  provides a good opportunity to continue the gf   shift to a more holistic multi-focal area  integrated programming and to connect with health   interventions given the broad range of issues  faced by this sector the gf should also seek   to link asgm and its chemicals and waste focal  area funding more broadly with other focal areas   such as biodiversity conservation international  waters and land degradation at least in certain   geographies so the full evaluation report is  available on our website and i'll put that   link into the chat it was there earlier but it  doesn't hurt to repeat i guess and and that's   all i've got to say at this moment so thanks very  much for your attention thank you very much juha   and we'll see the links and any other links we  will also of course make available after this this   uh this event as well so we've looked at the past  and now it's a time to look uh towards the future   planet gold is set to expand and i'm delighted to  turn to miguel morales the senior vice president   at conservation international to speak  to the upcoming chapter for planet gold   please miguel thank you very much and thank you  for inviting me to be part of this presentation   what i'd like to talk to you about is uh what  is next and how we're going to be expanding the   wonderful very positive work that the planetGOLD  initiated initiative started and in that regards   we are expanding uh to from nine active  projects that ludovic mentioned before   to additional eight countries and if you can go  to the next slide please um so we are working now   if you look at the map the areas in gold are the  countries where the planet goal is already working   they are active projects and we're expanding  now to nine to eight new new countries the   ones in blue on the map and what i'd like to do  for you today is give a very brief presentation   some highlights about the new countries that  we are um we're bringing to this initiative uh   i'll be talking only about two countries per per  continent and highlight some of the some of the uh   major things that we're gonna be working with all  these projects are currently under uh development   and we hope that within this calendar year we're  gonna be submitting the products for these child   projects as we call them within the initiative  next slide please so in america we have uh three   new countries that will be joining the planet  goal initiative bolivia honduras and suriname   i wanted to highlight for for bolivia for example  that this uh the asgm sector is uh one of the main   sources of exports for the country and it's  very important for the economy of bolivia   one of the issues that i also wanted to to signal  here is that um not only mining and the exposure   of miners to mercury is a problem in the country  but also that bolivia has become or is becoming a   regional hub for informal trade of mercury within  the region and we hope that that also will be   one of the topics that the country will address  or start addressing through the the gf project   in bolivia also mining small scale mining is  driving deforestation and we need to start   thinking about how to bring together uh topics  such as land use biodiversity conservation and   livelihoods in a more safe way for suriname which  is a very small country with a lot of forest deal   at least 50 of the annual gold production comes  from the asgm sector that's a very high percentage   of all the gold that's being produced in in in  suriname and it's also uh important to signal here   to to mention that about 40 000 people rely on on  this sector in suriname for the their livelihoods   in addition in suriname  there are issues of illegal   uh people coming from neighboring countries  the guardian payers from brazil for example   along with the maroons which are tribal  peoples of african descent are the main   people mining in this area and we really are  working with with the child project from suriname   to address some of those issues if not all of  those issues but these are long-term problems that   will require long-term investments not only from  the gf but from other donors next slide please in africa we're developing projects new  projects in ghana nigeria the republic of   the congo madagascar and uganda but i wanted  to bring your attention to two countries here   they're all very important but given  the constraints of time just wanted to   mention that nigeria for example 90 of the gold  production comes from artisanal and small-scale   miners there are about half a million people  that depend on this activity for their their   livelihoods that's that's remarkable that's very  important and we have to remember that in nigeria   relatively recently the country experienced  a rare case of combined contamination   with this in this sector where miners were not  only exposed to mercury that they used to mine   but also uh they were exposed to lead that coexist  within the the or where gold uh is found so there   are many issues that the child project for nigeria  will be addressing and again it's important   to mention here that um when we talk about mining  especially in this sector the artisanal small   scale gold mining we're talking about multiple  problems that need to be addressed and hopefully   the initiative will continue to do  that because we are already doing that   and the other country that i wanted to mention  here in in yuga is uganda and africa um   the the this sector uh employs or or  or is currently occupying 30 000 miners   and this is the the the the topic that i wanted to  mention in some regions is the the the mining is   largely done by women and especially in alluvial  mining areas in in in this country between 20 and   30 percent of the workforce force in the mining  sector can turn children and there is an urgency   for formalization and also alive alleviate  these issues in in uganda next slide please um the new uh child projects or  countries that are joining the extension   or the next step next phase of the  goal the planet goal initiative   one of the issues that we really want to emphasize  is the formalization of the sector and we're going   to be piloting what's called as a landscape  approach but uh is based on jurisdictional   boundaries such as municipalities provinces  or states and what we're trying to do is   bring together different stakeholders at the  sub-national level to be able to talk about   issues that have to do with the environment  social issues policies and economic issues   and and the main or one of the focuses will be  that the government will have to be present in   this jurisdictional approaches to drive the next  steps in in this initiative next slide please just very briefly uh what is the jurisdictional  approach um jurisdictional approach of being used   in production and more sustainable production of  other commodities especially in the agricultural   sector and what we're trying to do is apply this  framework where um the boundaries of the the   landscape are defined actually by government  administrative boundaries as i said before   there can be states or provinces or municipalities  where governments local governments uh alongside   with the central government are uh willing and  have the political will to work on formalization   and the other things that we will continue  doing with the clinical um planet goal extension   the objective here is to bring together different  stakeholders that have different interests and   different uses of the land and the resources on  the land and try to reconcile environmental social   economic interests and again the center point is  that different stakeholders the private sector uh   the rural people working in different aspects  of the the production and local governments   will come together to set an agenda define  the plans and implement the plans to make uh   the the initiative more sustainable and  another uh point that we want to explore is the   the sustainable goal sourcing from a commodity  that's produced within a very determined region   of the country that's uh uh what we're trying  to do with this piloting this approach we're   not saying that every single country in this next  step is going to pilot this but we are going to   do everything we can to provide the the training  the capacity building the tools to incentivize the   formalization of the sector and as ludovic said  many of the countries that are including the first   part or the first phase of planet  gold were already in the process of   formalizing the sector now we're including  other countries that have to start doing this   as a way of uh improving the use of  the the mining of gold in this sector   next slide please the jurisdiction approach um  also is a very good complement to the supply   chain management what we're trying to do is  bring governments and align the interests of the   government with the interests of the people living  in in these landscapes and these jurisdictions   we as i mentioned before is a is a framework where  multiple stakeholders will participate in where   we're going to try to make sure that different  interests of different stakes in in the land and   the resources are represented within within  the plans and the execution of those plans   jurisdictional approach is also very good  at bringing production and conservation for   multiple commodities not only gold mining although  the planetGOLD initiative will concentrate   and we will use gold as the platform we we  our intent is to look at the landscape or the   jurisdictional landscape in a more holistic way  such as uh production of agricultural commodities   and be able to thrive towards a more  more uh sustainable production overall   and what we're trying to do  here also is to have a greater   impact at scale instead of going mining  by mind by mind sites next slide please some of the potential benefits of this approach  that we will be promoting during the expansion   the the next phase of the plant goal phase is  trying to increase efficiencies by working at   the landscape jurisdictional levels with multiple  mining sites within this these landscapes and   thus we can avoid the cost of going mine by  by mine approach that can be more expensive   and also less efficient we're trying to or  we will continue doing the establishing the   direct links between markets interest and the  government policies and enforcement we want to   address uh more prominent the co-benefits and  those co-benefits can be for example better   watershed health conservation of biodiversity  for smart mining and many other co-benefits that   we can leverage using gold as an entry point  for these initiatives another one is that we can also take a a more focused um look into  human health and additional commodities as i   mentioned before and improve traceability  because we can we we only need to trace the   the origin of goal within that  jurisdiction and not individual minds   next slide please and this is the last slide and  during this new phase the global coordination   project what we're going to be doing in terms  of the jurisdictional approach is three things   capacity building first because the jurisdictional  approach has been as i said has been applied   successfully to other commodities but we're we're  trying to apply this to to the uh the sector that   is our interest in this initiative and we're going  to provide capacity building through webinars   serious and topical presentations the development  and deployment of tools and methodologies to make   sure that those countries that want to embrace the  jurisdictional approach uh have the tools and the   ways to to to advance their projects and finally  product review consultations and knowledge sharing   so that's from my end and thank you very  much again for for the opportunity to   give you the flavor of what is coming and it's  coming pretty soon because uh the the the new   eight uh country projects are right now develo in  in development full development and we hope that   before the end of the calendar year where they're  gonna be entering implementation thank you so much   thank you miguel um i think you've given an  excellent flavor of what's to come and also   explained uh the jurisdictional approach quite  well you might see in the chat box there are   all kinds of comments there for you to peruse we  will move on now because i i did mention earlier   that we had a special announcement at the end  um so let me call on a little one more time   the floor is yours over to you thank you um  and it was a great um moment to listen to all   the the panelists and speakers and uh as was  mentioned many times you know the outreach and   communication and educating a bit the public on  what the choice they can make when they buy gold   so that it really makes a difference at the mining  site the people who already need it the most   is really important i think there's a slide coming  uh so yeah so as uh was mentioned by salim in the   chat i don't know if many uh of you saw it at the  beginning uh we've been working uh with oro monaco   for a while now in the planetGOLD program  and in the global mercury partnership and   they have invited us at an event organized  by the better world forum around the   cannes film festival this summer in july in the  south of france and the event will be a whole   day event with many partners that are involved in  the planet gold program talking about ethical gold   again to really make some efforts to um to to talk  to the public and to inform the public on how our   choices can influence um the mining the miners  in each of these mining sites and countries uh   where we are operating so we will communicate  more on this event this is just an announcement   but we're really looking forward  to participating in this thank you perfect little thank you very much when we can't  travel to some of these wonderful regions we can   certainly live through them or live  in them through through art of movie   and art of visualization and certainly films are a  way to shape new ideas amongst people so this is a   remarkable and very very good move congratulations  to all of those involved so this leads us to the   end the final thoughts and i would like to turn to  our panelists one more time um just with a small   caveat to say that rosa has had to excuse herself  it's quite late in jakarta as you can imagine   and she's had to do one more official engagement  tonight but i would like to turn to rob carey   monica and carlos manuel in that order can you  share a sentence a final sentence reflection   with the audience as a way of a take-home message  after today's meeting after today's discussions   it could be something that you would like to add  that hasn't been said or something you'd like to   reiterate or it could be something new that maybe  you only thought of or realized today so rob if i   may start with you no thank you very much and this  has been an incredibly informative and educational   program today so thank you for all of the speakers  and thank you for all the panelists and all of the   presentations i'm super impressed and i know i've  learned a lot and and we've been working on this   issue in my office for almost as long as i've  been there 15 years and just really quickly i   just want to emphasize a few things one is this  is really important work really excited to see   what is planned for the future we need to continue  to do this work it is a huge pervasive issue that   truly needs a global approach and you know i think  the jeff is the best place to do it the one thing   i want to do is just as emphasize the importance  of communication and information sharing i think   that's key but i don't think and i want to double  down on what kerry said earlier that doesn't mean   big long reports i don't think that helps anyone  so i love the idea that you're gonna get the   canned film festival and be doing and information  sharing and you know you know sort of like getting   the word out about this at a place like can  and also something that kerry said related to   the um you know the making sure that the  the buyers um know and know where to get   gold that's mercury free and how to do that  i'm just from a personal perspective my one   of my nieces is a is a jeweler she makes her  own jewelry and she's super successful in in   in denver and she is you know always on the  lookout for you know mercury-free gold and   so i know this from a personal perspective  that's not always easy to find so i think   connecting the markets is super important and  i will i'll stop there those i think are the   are the things that i'd like to end this with  um thank you very much incredibly good program   thank you very much rob and over to carrie yeah  i'll just underscore everything rob said um   really couldn't be more grateful for this event  it's so timely as we're looking at a post pandemic   how do we really engage and re-engage with supply  chains that maybe have a linguist or have been put   on hold now is the time to really start engaging  the private sector from my perspective there is   a host of different types of collaborative  opportunities that are going on to actually   do this type of communication and to connect the  markets so i would encourage all of us to make   sure this isn't the firs this is the first of many  conversations not the last um and so if we can get   together uh you know continue the conversations  really find the opportunities to connect   these supply chains and these amazing programs  on the ground with the people that are doing the   work as well as the ngos that are supporting the  efforts on the ground um we will be able to go   much farther and pull this all the way through  to 2030 and 2040 and 2050 goals perfect thank   you very much carrie i would have called on monica  but she's literally just entered a consultation um   about our cop preparations but she asked me to  point out and just to remind of of the article   a little while ago that mercury was even found  in the mariana trench so really we have mercury   we have work to do on mercury everywhere don't we  but with this let me let me call on carnos carlos   manuel please over to you oh thank you so much  claudia and um it's very difficult to me to say   in a couple of words everything that i have in  my mind and to react to the many interventions   because this topic is very close to my mind i  will do my best i'll bring three topics that i   tend to believe that are extremely extremely  important as we look forward into the future   the first one is yeah i totally agree with you all  the jurisdictional approach is a right investment   it will give us a long-term benefits it's going  to be very challenging but also we need to put   is a dose of reality when we're talking about  you know doing the irritational approach because   there's a new element that the baseline has shift  from the first uh phases of um of our planetGOLD   to today and that is because of kobe so any any  new regulation any new improvement and enhancement   o

2021-04-07 13:20

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