IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v88y2024ics0301420723009704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic valuation of artisanal small-scale gold mining impacts: A framework for value transfer application

Author

Listed:
  • Gasparinnetti, Pedro
  • Bakker, Leonardo Barcellos
  • Queiroz, Julia Mello
  • Vilela, Thais

Abstract

Illegal artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) activities have serious environmental and health consequences. In this study, we developed a framework for calculating the economic costs associated with the negative environmental and social impacts of ASGM in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on a literature review on impact valuations of deforestation, land degradation, and mercury contamination, we used multiple parameters to develop a generalizable value transfer formula. The formula relates input variables, such as mining site area, pit depth, gold extraction productivity, and other context variables (population density, per capita income, average daily fish consumption, and transportation cost for restoration) to calculate the average monetary values associated with the impact. Additionally, we propose an enhancement to the model used by Bakker et al. (2021) for estimating mercury impacts on human health. Our findings show that values associated with social and environmental damage range from US$ 187,200 to US$ 389,200 per kilogram of gold, which is mostly attributable to health outcomes related to mercury contamination, which represents more than twice the market value of gold. Furthermore, we conducted a case study for the Tapajós Basin, which revealed that the socioeconomic costs generated by 4,547 ha of alluvial ASGM in the basin surpasses US$ 1 billion for the year 2020.

Suggested Citation

  • Gasparinnetti, Pedro & Bakker, Leonardo Barcellos & Queiroz, Julia Mello & Vilela, Thais, 2024. "Economic valuation of artisanal small-scale gold mining impacts: A framework for value transfer application," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s0301420723009704
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104259
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420723009704
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104259?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph V. Spadaro & Ari Rabl, 2008. "Global Health Impacts and Costs Due to Mercury Emissions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 603-613, June.
    2. Leonardo Barcellos de Bakker & Pedro Gasparinetti & Júlia Mello de Queiroz & Ana Claudia Santiago de Vasconcellos, 2021. "Economic Impacts on Human Health Resulting from the Use of Mercury in the Illegal Gold Mining in the Brazilian Amazon: A Methodological Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-26, November.
    3. Mark A. Moore & Anthony E. Boardman & Aidan R. Vining, 2020. "Social Discount Rates for Seventeen Latin American Countries: Theory and Parameter Estimation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(1), pages 43-71, January.
    4. Haslam, Paul Alexander & Ary Tanimoune, Nasser, 2016. "The Determinants of Social Conflict in the Latin American Mining Sector: New Evidence with Quantitative Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 401-419.
    5. Rosenberger, Randall S. & Stanley, Tom D., 2006. "Measurement, generalization, and publication: Sources of error in benefit transfers and their management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 372-378, December.
    6. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    7. Akpalu, Wisdom & Normanyo, Ametefee K., 2017. "Gold Mining Pollution and the Cost of Private Healthcare: The Case of Ghana," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 104-112.
    8. Caballero, Karina & Alatorre, José Eduardo & Ferrer, Jimy & Galindo, Luis Miguel, 2019. "El costo social del carbono: una visión agregada desde América Latina," Documentos de Proyectos 44423, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    9. de Groot, Rudolf & Brander, Luke & van der Ploeg, Sander & Costanza, Robert & Bernard, Florence & Braat, Leon & Christie, Mike & Crossman, Neville & Ghermandi, Andrea & Hein, Lars & Hussain, Salman & , 2012. "Global estimates of the value of ecosystems and their services in monetary units," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 50-61.
    10. Paula Meli & Karen D Holl & José María Rey Benayas & Holly P Jones & Peter C Jones & Daniel Montoya & David Moreno Mateos, 2017. "A global review of past land use, climate, and active vs. passive restoration effects on forest recovery," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Don Kenkel, 2006. "WTP- and QALY-Based Approaches to Valuing Health for Policy: Common Ground and Disputed Territory," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 34(3), pages 419-437, July.
    12. William Nordhaus, 2014. "Estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon: Concepts and Results from the DICE-2013R Model and Alternative Approaches," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 000.
    13. Robert J. Johnston & Randall S. Rosenberger, 2010. "Methods, Trends And Controversies In Contemporary Benefit Transfer," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 479-510, July.
    14. Nadine Steckling & Brecht Devleesschauwer & Julia Winkelnkemper & Florian Fischer & Bret Ericson & Alexander Krämer & Claudia Hornberg & Richard Fuller & Dietrich Plass & Stephan Bose-O’Reilly, 2017. "Disability Weights for Chronic Mercury Intoxication Resulting from Gold Mining Activities: Results from an Online Pairwise Comparisons Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, January.
    15. James L. Boutwell & John V. Westra, 2013. "Benefit Transfer: A Review of Methodologies and Challenges," Resources, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-11, October.
    16. repec:reg:rpubli:282 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Gulley, Andrew L., 2017. "Valuing environmental impacts of mercury emissions from gold mining: Dollar per troy ounce estimates for twelve open-pit, small-scale, and artisanal mining sites," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 266-272.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonardo Barcellos de Bakker & Pedro Gasparinetti & Júlia Mello de Queiroz & Ana Claudia Santiago de Vasconcellos, 2021. "Economic Impacts on Human Health Resulting from the Use of Mercury in the Illegal Gold Mining in the Brazilian Amazon: A Methodological Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-26, November.
    2. Queiroz, Julia & Gasparinetti, Pedro & Bakker, Leonardo B. & Lobo, Felipe & Nagel, Gustavo, 2022. "Socioeconomic cost of dredge boat gold mining in the Tapajós basin, eastern Amazon," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Chaikumbung, Mayula & Doucouliagos, Hristos & Scarborough, Helen, 2016. "The economic value of wetlands in developing countries: A meta-regression analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 164-174.
    4. Hynes, S. & Ghermandi, A. & Norton, D. & Williams, H., 2017. "Marine Recreational Ecosystem Service Value Meta-Analysis," Working Papers 266404, National University of Ireland, Galway, Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit.
    5. Hynes, Stephen & Ghermandi, Andrea & Norton, Daniel & Williams, Heidi, 2018. "Marine recreational ecosystem service value estimation: A meta-analysis with cultural considerations," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 410-419.
    6. Schild, Johanna E.M. & Vermaat, Jan E. & de Groot, Rudolf S. & Quatrini, Simone & van Bodegom, Peter M., 2018. "A global meta-analysis on the monetary valuation of dryland ecosystem services: The role of socio-economic, environmental and methodological indicators," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(PA), pages 78-89.
    7. Robert J. Johnston & Kevin J. Boyle & Maria L. Loureiro & Ståle Navrud & John Rolfe, 2021. "Guidance to Enhance the Validity and Credibility of Environmental Benefit Transfers," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(3), pages 575-624, July.
    8. Doucouliagos, Hristos & Paldam, Martin & Stanley, T.D., 2018. "Skating on thin evidence: Implications for public policy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 16-25.
    9. Ewa Zawojska & Zbigniew Szkop & Mikołaj Czajkowski & Tomasz Żylicz, 2016. "Economic valuation of ecosystem services provided by the Wilanów Park: A benefit transfer study," Working Papers 2016-31, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    10. Banerjee, Onil & Crossman, Neville & Vargas, Renato & Brander, Luke & Verburg, Peter & Cicowiez, Martin & Hauck, Jennifer & McKenzie, Emily, 2020. "Global socio-economic impacts of changes in natural capital and ecosystem services: State of play and new modeling approaches," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    11. Rolfe, John & Brouwer, Roy, 2011. "Testing for value stability with a meta-analysis of choice experiments: River health in Australia," Research Reports 107744, Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub.
    12. Jacqueline Adelowo & Mathias Mier & Christoph Weissbart, 2021. "Taxation of Carbon Emissions and Air Pollution in Intertemporal Optimization Frameworks with Social and Private Discount Rates," ifo Working Paper Series 360, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    13. Roger Fouquet, 2018. "Consumer Surplus from Energy Transitions," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    14. Stephen Hynes & Daniel Norton & Nick Hanley, 2013. "Adjusting for Cultural Differences in International Benefit Transfer," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(4), pages 499-519, December.
    15. Fitzpatrick, Luke & Parmeter, Christopher F. & Agar, Juan, 2019. "Approaches for visualizing uncertainty in benefit transfer from metaregression," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Richardson, Leslie & Loomis, John & Kroeger, Timm & Casey, Frank, 2015. "The role of benefit transfer in ecosystem service valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 51-58.
    17. Londoño, Luz M. & Johnston, Robert J., 2012. "Enhancing the reliability of benefit transfer over heterogeneous sites: A meta-analysis of international coral reef values," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 80-89.
    18. Rolfe, John & Windle, Jill, 2012. "Testing benefit transfer of reef protection values between local case studies: The Great Barrier Reef in Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 60-69.
    19. Hammitt, James K. & Haninger, Kevin, 2017. "Valuing nonfatal health risk as a function of illness severity and duration: Benefit transfer using QALYs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 17-38.
    20. Fitzpatrick, Luke & Parmeter, Christopher F. & Agar, Juan, 2017. "Threshold Effects in Meta-Analyses With Application to Benefit Transfer for Coral Reef Valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 74-85.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s0301420723009704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.