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planetGOLD Colombia 🇨🇴 has developed a Savings & Credit group program, training miners to manage their own community loans at a low interest rate, rather than rely on loan sharks.

The project has formed 81 groups with the successful participation of over 1,300 people so far—78% of whom are women miners.

Hear from some of these women about how the program has helped them achieve a new level of financial autonomy.

The coastal waters of Southeast Asia are home to one of the world’s most productive fisheries, which supports nearly 4 million people. But a growing human population and overfishing are threatening the region’s marine species, including the blue crab.  

Women working in artisanal and small-scale gold mining typically face discrimination at all stages of the ASGM value chain. Despite making up 30 percent of the global ASGM workforce, women's work is often undervalued and impeded.

But the reality is that women have critical roles to play in advancing more environmentally and socially responsible mining practices.

Angèle Delo began panning with mercury in her town in southeastern Burkina Faso at the age of 12. Now she is one of 116 miners who are newly equipped with skills to process ore without the use of this toxic metal, thanks to a new vocational training program developed by planetGOLD Burkina Faso.

Angele plans to not only use this training for her own work, but to also raise awareness among her fellow women miners, especially in the town of Poura where many women still work using mercury.

Meet Angele in episode 12 of planetGOLD's #DispatchesFromTheField series.

Alfredo Somebang is an elder of the Pidlisan Indigenous tribe, which is part of the collective tribe of Igorot, or "people of the mountains," in the Philippines' Sagada region. He works as a gold miner as well as a farmer to support his family of eight. Small-scale gold mining is an increasingly important part of this region’s economy, and for the past two years, the planetGOLD Philippines project has worked with Alfredo and other miners to design a mercury-free gold processing plant that is fully accepted and approved by all local Indigenous communities.

Two new facilities nearing completion in Mongolia will allow small-scale gold miners to use a centralized, professional processing service that is mercury-free, rather than doing the gold processing themselves in secret using mercury.

Visit both new mercury-free facilities in this episode of planetGOLD's #DispatchesFromTheField video series.

What does financing have to do with the push to #MakeMercuryHistory in artisanal & small-scale gold mining?

Unlocking capital from formal financial institutions like commercial banks and microfinance institutions is critically needed in order for artisanal and small-scale miners to make the transition to responsible, #mercuryfree mining.

Banco National Park in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, is much more than just a pocket of green. It is a sprawling nationally protected park that is 10 times the size of New York City’s Central Park – and yet is completely ensconced by the hustle and bustle of Abidjan, a city of 5 million.

Biotechnology has huge potential to help overcome some of our leading global problems, from disease-resistant crops to innovative medical treatments.

But, like many new technologies, it is not without potential risks.

Living Modified Organisms (LMOs – also known as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs) can potentially negatively impact human health and the environment.

The United Nations Environment Programme is working with San Salvador city and its surrounding coffee farms to create a natural defence against floods. Known as CityAdapt, the project is restoring 1,150 hectares of forests and coffee plantations to revive San Salvador’s ability to absorb rainfall.

Soil degradation is a major challenge for Vietnam's farmers, but biochar could be the answer.