By Amazon Watch

This report, developed by Amazon Watch in collaboration with various Indigenous and human rights organizations, addresses the recent security crisis in Ecuador and the impacts of the repressive policies implemented by the government of Daniel Noboa. It highlights the increasing influence of organized crime and illegal mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This research exposes how criminal economies not only pose a threat to the livelihoods of Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and traditional rural communities by endangering their territorial governance projects and the sustainability of their ways of life, but also severely compromises the ecological integrity of the Amazon. The conclusion contains a series of recommendations aimed at ensuring the rights of the civilian population in the context of the non-international armed conflict recently declared by the national government to address this crisis. It particularly emphasizes the need to provide protection guarantees and establish coordination mechanisms with the organizational structures of Indigenous peoples and nationalities, whose territorial governance projects are at risk. Additionally, it underscores the urgency of strengthening the government’s institutional capacity by developing coordinated actions to halt the advance of illegal economies, declaring the Amazon in a state of emergency, and taking immediate measures to prevent its destruction

Oakland, CA: Amazon Watch, 2024. 24p.

By Moises Rendon, Linnea Sandin, and Claudia Fernandez

While the economic, humanitarian, and political crisis in Venezuela worsens, criminal groups—including gangs, Colombian guerrilla groups, and colectivos (paramilitary groups)—are competing for control of the country’s valuable mineral resources. These resources include bauxite, coltan, diamonds, and, particularly, gold. Illegal mining is causing irreversible damage to the environment, fueling human rights abuses, and creating significant security threats for Venezuela and the region.

At the same time, as significant sanctions and diplomatic isolation have not yet impacted Nicolas Maduro’s hold on power, illegal mining raises three fundamental issues for policymakers: (1) the implications of further instability in an already failed state, (2) the impact on sanctions policies, and (3) the challenge of getting these territories back from armed groups once there is a transition.

Washington DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2020. 9p.

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Sahel countries are some of the largest gold producers in Africa. While gold production data can be unreliable, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and the Niger are estimated to have produced 228 tons of gold in 2021, worth over 12.6 billion United States dollars ($). The gold sector is a major economic driver in the Sahel countries. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) production is estimated at 108 tons per year in Sahel countries, although official ASGM production data is largely unreliable due to the informal nature of the sector. ASGM provides a livelihood to over 1.8 million people in areas where income-generating activities are limited. The sector is characterized by high levels of informality because it often takes place on unlicensed and undeclared mining sites. Gold mining without licenses is illegal in all Sahel countries, although Member States have taken measures to formalize ASGM. Barriers to accessing mining licences often push communities involved in ASGM into a vicious cycle of illegality. Without protection of the law, they depend on a local economy often controlled by transnational organized crime (TOC) groups to fund their operations and to sell their gold production, with limited opportunities for structural investments. These communities are potentially susceptible to

recruitment by armed groups, including violent extremist groups. Porous borders enable gold to be easily moved within the Sahel countries and smuggled out of the region, including to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Vienna: UNODC, 2023. 36p.

By Maurice Ogbonnaya

Although Nigeria’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector has considerable developmental potential, it is undermined by the criminal consortia profiteering from it at the expense of vulnerable populations. In Nigeria’s North West, North Central and, to some extent, South West regions, criminal collaboration in the illegal mining of gold between ‘Nigerians in high positions of authority’ and foreign corporations deprives the state of legitimate earnings. It also drives rural banditry and violent local conflicts. The Nigerian state will need to deal with the illegal mining networks that fuel rural banditry and violence both in the North West region and across the country.

ENACT Africa, 2020. 12p.

By ENACT

The illicit exploitation of mineral resources has long-term impacts on the environment, including formation of sinkholes, and contamination of the soil, groundwater and surface water. It also results in soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, health risks and even deaths. However, it is not regarded as environmental crime in Central Africa. This Policy Brief draws attention to the environmental harms caused by illegal mining in the region and explores how national and regional responses to the challenge can address the environmental fallouts.

Key points

• The environmental impacts of illegal mining in Central Africa negatively affect human and animal habitats, as well as the lives of indigenous communities.

• Illegal mining in the region is not regarded as an environmental crime.

• Various obstacles impede attempts to address illegal mining, including gaps in the criminalization of such mining and non-stringent penalties.

• Both state and non-state actors are involved in illegal mining, undermining state authority and regulatory capabilities.

• There are no regional mechanisms to counter illegal mining.

ENACT Africa, 2024. 12p.

By Andres Martinez-Fernandez

Key Points

• National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas remain a potent challenge for regional security and development. The ELN is growing in Colombia and Venezuela, thanks to its involvement in illegal mining, now the most important revenue source for the guerrilla group.

• The ELN’s illegal mining remains virtually unrestricted in Venezuela, thanks to the Nicolás Maduro regime’s complicity. At the same time, despite the Colombian government’s recent efforts, illegal mining continues to take place throughout Colombia, benefiting armed groups like the ELN.

• To cut off the ELN from this vital revenue source, the United States and Colombia must work to expand the presence of the state in areas affected by illegal mining, formalize artisanal miners, strengthen the state’s enforcement and investigatory capacities, and isolate Venezuela from global gold markets.

Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 2019. 12p.

By Organization of American States , Department against Transnational Organized Crime

The illegal gold trade is a growing and significant challenge in Ecuador. The spread of illegal gold mining activity has brought surges of violence and instability to remote areas while attracting organized crime, at the local and international level, and triggering an increase in money laundering and contraband. Concern regarding the disruptive and harmful impact of illegal gold mining, as well as the government’s desire to develop and expand Ecuador’s mining sector away from its reliance on small-scale and artisanal operations, have also led to a renewed focus on the challenges posed by illegal mining. There is reason to believe that the illegal gold trade and its associated criminal networks are less entrenched and developed in Ecuador than in neighboring Peru and Colombia. However, there are significant challenges facing the government as it works to combat illegal mining activity, which is increasingly accelerated by illicit cross-border contraband flows and unique vulnerabilities to money laundering activity.

Washington, DC: OAS, 2021. 46p.

By The The Organization of American States, Department against Transnational Organized Crime

The illegal gold trade in Colombia is a widespread and significant threat that has seen considerable growth in recent years. Illegal mining activity produces substantial quantities of gold in the country, by some estimates representing over 70% of national production and accounting for the majority of gold exports. The illegal extraction of gold exacerbates numerous challenges Colombia faces, such as insecurity, environmental degradation, and corruption, while also providing opportunities for drug trafficking organizations and illegal armed groups to obtain significant revenue in some regions. Indeed, in areas where there is extensive mineral exploitation these transnational criminal organizations are often deeply involved in Colombia’s illegal trade in gold, leveraging extensive criminal expertise, ample financing capacities, and armed violence in order to develop illicit gold networks. The spread of illegal mining in Colombia is facilitated by high levels of economic and commercial informality, rural poverty, corruption, limited governmental presence and resources in remote mining areas, and porous international borders that are vulnerable to smuggling, among other factors. Colombia’s government is taking numerous steps to combat the sale and export of illegal gold, including through regulation and oversight of gold supply chains, formalization programs targeting small-scale miners, support for subsistence mining, and on-the-ground operations to disrupt illegal mining activity. Nevertheless, illegal trade in gold continues to thrive as illicit actors excel in finding gaps and opportunities to exploit.

Washington, DC: The Organization of American States, Department against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 66p.

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By The Organization of American States, Department against Transnational Organized Crime

Peru’s well-developed mining sector has shaped the country’s economy and society to a significant degree. The mining sector contributes up to 10% of GDP, while minerals like gold and copper weigh heavily in Peru’s trade composition. Peru’s abundant reserves of mineral resources have helped to fuel the development of its mining sector, attracting a variety of small, medium, and large enterprises to engage in exploration and extraction. However, the country’s mineral wealth and governance challenges in remote mining areas, also offer ample opportunities for organized crime and illegal mining activity. As a result, large populations of illegal miners and transnational criminal networks have become deeply entrenched in Peru, giving the country a central role in the international illegal gold trade. While Peru has taken active steps to combat illegal gold mining and the sale and export of illegal gold, a variety of criminal actors have continued to successfully engage in and promote these illicit activities, producing detrimental effects for citizen security, the economy, and the environment.

Washington, DC: Organization of American States, Department against Transnational Organized Crime 2021. 40p.

By ENACT AFrica and INTERPOL

Over the last decade, criminal actors engaged in illegal mining have made huge amounts of illicit profits at the expense of countries’ economies, vulnerable populations, and the environment across the Central African region. In the region, gold is mainly produced by artisanal and small-scale gold miners and semi-mechanized companies. The exact quantities of gold produced is unknown to authorities; gold smuggling within and out of the region is well organized, systematic, and concerns the majority of gold leaving the region. The dominance of crime in the industry is enabled by a variety of factors affecting the entire gold supply chain. Illegal financing, by gold, cash, or other means, fuels the process. Fraudulent practices are a central aspect in land exploitation, and allow criminals to employ more effective methods for extraction and production, and to conceal the real quantity of gold produced. A network of illegal buyers collects gold from production sites and smuggles it to regional traders and refiners, who, in turn, are likely to obscure its real origin, ownership, and quantity. Gold is then smuggled out of the country or region mainly by air, often via Cameroon or Uganda, towards Asia (United Arab Emirates, India, and China). Smuggling gold to neighbouring countries allow criminals to benefit from discrepancies in export taxes. It also allows them to introduce gold onto the global market masking its origin, especially if originating from conflict zones. Information suggests that gold mining is largely controlled by criminal consortia composed of different actors, who, collectively, benefit from criminal synergies: members of organized crimes groups (OCGs) and /or corrupt officials in high-ranking positions, economic players, and non-state armed groups in conflict zones. The presence of non-state armed groups in gold mining areas, who seek to finance their activities with the illicit proceeds from this natural resource, is likely to be controlled.

Paris: INTERPOL; ENACT AFRICA, 2021. 53p.

By The Igarapé Institute and INTERPOL

The Igarapé Institute, in a partnership with INTERPOL, releases the “Guidance note on combating environmental crime: lessons from fighting illegal gold mining in the Amazon Basin”. The publication offers practical guidance for law enforcement, criminal justice and environmental protection authorities to better understand the scope and scale of the challenge. It is designed for national and subnational environmental investigators, police officers and public prosecutors at the forefront of efforts to dismantle environmental crimes in the Amazon.

The guidance note reviews policy and operational strategies meant to prevent, control and reduce illegal small-scale gold mining in the Amazon – with a focus on Brazil, Colombia and Peru. The note offers a catalogue of 12 measures already in place in the three countries that can be valuable for law enforcement, criminal justice and environmental protection authorities to learn from each other, cooperate and coordinate activities within and across countries.

Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brasil, Igarapé Institute, 2021. 41p.

By Melina Risso, Julia Sekula, Lycia Brasil, Peter Schmidt and Maria Eduarda Pessoa de Assis

In the past 20 years, the price of gold has increased from US$400 to US$1861.50 per ounce, driven by rising demand in China and India. Gold is time and capital-intensive to produce, which is why this rise in demand has driven an attendant demand for illegal gold mining — an industry that is estimated to yield globally between US$12 and US$28 billion annually.2 The Brazilian Amazon is rife with illegal gold mining operations, with 321 identified points of illegal, active and inactive mines arranged in the 9 states that comprise the Brazilian Amazon Basin.3 This has had a direct impact on deforestation rates and health hazards of local indigenous populations. Deforestation across the Amazon grew 25% in the first half of 2020 according to INPE (Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research). The contribution of mining activity to deforestation rates as a whole has increased from 4% in 2017 to 23% in indigenous territories in data recorded up to June 10, 2020.4 Deforestation has been concentrated in indigenous territories where, between 2018 and 2019, environmental degradation by mining increased 107%. This devastation has a price — according to Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutors Office, 1kg of gold represents roughly R$1.7m in environmental damages, culminating in an environmental cost roughly 10 times greater than the current price of gold.

Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brasil, Igarapé Institute, 2021. 50p.

By Livia Wagner

Criminal groups quickly recognized that controlling large swaths of land and illicit and legitimate enterprises linked to illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon enabled them to generate larger profit margins with fewer risks due to the lack of a government law enforcement presence. Gold constitutes an ideal medium for criminal groups to launder proceeds obtained from other illegal activities. Compared to other natural resources and illicit goods, gold is valuable by volume. Also, COVID-19 is not only having an impact on the global economy and surging unemployment. It is driving gold prices to historical record highs since 2012, leading to an influx of illegal miners to unlicensed mining sites where they invade protected indigenous lands, stripping swaths of forest bare, poisoning rivers with mercury, and laundering illegal gold through mineral shops. The nexus between illegal mining and other organized crime complicates the design of strategies to address this problem effectively. Specifically, intersections with human trafficking and forced labor, migrant smuggling, and the drug trade have been identified. However, the form and degree can vary significantly.

Miami: Florida International University, The Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, 2021. 27p.

By Livia Wagner

Throughout history, man has venerated gold. Gold was the first of the three gifts of the Magi to Jesus. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the values of world currencies were fixed in terms of gold (the Gold Standard). Olympic athletes vie for gold medals and the best footballer in the world is awarded the Ballon d’Or. An extremely well behaved child is ‘as good as gold’ and a generous person has ‘a heart of gold’.

It is only natural to think positively about gold, just as it is equally natural to think negatively about drugs. But, as the Global Initiative proves in its latest research report: “Organised Crime and Illegally Mined Gold in Latin America”, illegally mined gold is now more important to organized crime in some countries of Latin America than narcotics:

In Peru and Colombia – the largest cocaine producers in the world – the value of illegal gold exports now exceeds the value of cocaine exports.

Illegal mining is the easiest and most profitable way to launder money in the history of Colombian drug trafficking.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, 2016. 100p.

By Verité

In-depth research carried out by Verité has found that Latin American countries export reputational risks for major companies with gold in their supply chains. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, with which Verité has been closely collaborating, recently released an in-depth report thoroughly documenting the close link between illegal gold mining and organized crime, which fuels violence, environmental damage, corruption, money Verité publications include a research report focusing on illegal gold mining in Colombia and a white paper with detailed recommendations for companies and other stakeholders to ensure that illegally mined gold does not enter into company supply chains and the vaults of central banks. research carried out by Verité in Peru in 2012-2013 and in Colombia in 2015, and desk research carried out across the Latin American region.

Amherst, MA: Verité , 2016. 17p.

By Etienne Romson

This second of two papers on global oil theft discusses ways to reduce oil theft, misappropriation, and fraud. At US$133 billion per year, oil is the largest stolen natural resource globally, while fuel is the most smuggled natural resource. Oil theft equates to 5–7 per cent of the global market for crude oil and petroleum fuels. It is so engrained in the energy supply chain that thefts are priced in by traders and tolerated by many shipping companies as petty theft. Oil theft and related insecurity have substantial negative economic effects on developing countries, whether they produce oil or not. In 2012, non-oil-producing Benin saw a 28 per cent drop in taxable income after a spate of oil tanker hijacking incidents in the Gulf of Guinea in 2011. In Nigeria, the oil capacity shut-in and amount of oil deferred is more than twice the amount estimated as stolen, with a US$20 billion annual loss in petroleum profit tax—63 per cent of total government tax revenue in 2019. Organized oil crime syndicates are often transnational and conduct theft and fraud professionally, exploiting gaps in jurisdiction and adapting their practices when law enforcement becomes more effective. They evolve from ship piracy to stealing tanker cargoes to kidnapping tanker crews; from physical ransom of assets to digital hijacking via ransomware. The proceeds of oil theft often finance other organized crime, and it triggers violence against the community and in crime-on-crime activities. Twelve commonalities in oil theft and fraud have been identified that can direct international solutions, in three target areas: stolen oil volumes, stolen oil transport, and stolen oil money. Prosecution for acts of bribery offers opportunities for action: transport of or payment for illegal oil could constitute a bribe under the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act if government officials were involved in the transaction or shipment. Bribe charges could be raised for paid ‘services’ that facilitate oil theft (through action or non-action).

Helsinki: UNU-WIDER , 2022. 65p.