Local Governance and Labor Organizations on Artisanal Gold Mining Sites in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This paper based on the institutional analysis and development framework (IAD) is to discuss the local governance and labor organizations on artisanal gold mining camps in Burkina Faso; a West African country that in recent years has been increasingly exploiting its gold reserves. Field data were collected from three sites in the villages of Diosso, Siguinoguin and Zincko in accordance with the purposive sampling. One major finding gleaned from the on-site research is that forms of governance vary along a continuum from flexible (enforced by a joint powers: artisanal miners’ union, customary authorities and landowners) to rigid (enforced by landowner). Another finding is that the type of relationship between indigenous communities and miners depend on the importance of the authocthony of the artisanal miners. Indeed, they are harmonious in Zincko, where miners originate from the village, whereas they are tense in Siguinoguin, which is populated by migrants. Eventually, this paper relies on the French school of proximity to enrich the definitions given to the attributes of the physical world and the attributes of the community highlighted by Ostrom’s theory as geographical proximity fails to detail forms of relational proximity that clearly structure the way governance is organized on the mining camps.

Characteristics and thermodynamics of Sahelian heatwaves analysed using various thermal indices

“…1150, 2015 in which warnings seek to indicate potential damages of hydro-meteorological events on humans and their assets. For example, large proportions of Sahelian populations practice their economic activities outdoor and are exposed to relatively long hours of sunshine, including construction workers and street vendors in urban centres (Quak 2018; Balarabe and Sahin 2020), pastoralists and increasingly market gardeners (Woltering et al 2011) and informal gold diggers (Ouedraogo and Mundler 2019) in rural areas. The UTCI index, which accounts for solar radiation (Table 1) may therefore be the most indicated for targeting these groups.…”

Artisanal gold mining in Mauritania

“…This may facilitate the implementation of the regulations in the sector while mitigating health and environmental risks. This educational advantage is in stark contrast to the situation in countries such as Burkina Faso, where illiteracy levels among artisanal miners are rampant (Ouedraogo and Mundler 2019). This element may also bring into question the possible negative impact of mining on the agricultural and farming sectors, and potentially on school dropout levels -consequences that have been observed in the other countries in the subregion, including Mali and Burkina Faso (World Bank 2017b).…”

A flash in the pan? Agential constructivist perspectives on local content, governance, and the large-scale mining–artisanal and small-scale mining interface in West Africa

“…The finalization of reforms through specific legislation and legal application documents is slow and incomplete, and the implementation is lacking. In the case of ASM, institutional frameworks on formalization have not significantly changed the existing informal rules and local customs (Bazillier and Girard, 2020;Ouedraogo and Mundler, 2019). Some of the new formalization rules and procedures do not correspond to local realities and do not take obstacles into account.…”