Artisanal mining in Africa. Green for Gold?

Abstract The livelihoods of 130 to 270 million people depend on artisanal mining. Artisanal mining is a labour-intensive, often illegal, extractive activity. We combine geological knowledge and a source of exogenous temporal variation to construct the first proxy for artisanal gold mining in Africa—the main form of artisanal mining. We establish that an increase in the potential value of artisanal mining is a significant driver of deforestation. The historical increase in the gold price accounts for 8% of forest loss across the continent and, within the subset of gold-suitable areas, 28 %. In parallel, artisanal mining increases local economic wealth and may provide an alternative livelihood should a weather shock jeopardise agricultural output. Finally, mining-induced deforestation seems rooted more in the direct clearing of trees for the activity than in indirect deforestation triggered by increased local demand.