This conference brings together experts, researchers,
policymakers, and stakeholders within the mining sector. It
aims to create a common space to discuss the assessment
and reporting methods for environmental and human health
issues related to gold mining, with a special emphasis on
gold mining in Guyana. It will explore approaches to mitigate
these issues and strengthen collaboration for research and
community empowerment.
Opening Session
Call to Order
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer, UG
National Anthem
UG Talent
Chair’s Welcome
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer, UG
Overview of Event and Process
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Opening Remarks Prof. Paloma Mohamed Martin,
Vice-Chancellor, UG
Aiesha Williams,
Country Manager, Guyana, WWF-Guianas
Dr Laurence Maurice, Director of Research, IRD
Keynote Address Gold Mining in Guyana: approaches to ensuring sustainability
Darcy Waldron,
Head, Department of Environment, GGMC
and Guyana Focal Point for Minamata Convention
Featured Technical Presentation
Dr Laurence Maurice, Director of Research, IRD
Introduction of session
Patrick Ketwaru, Senior Lecturer, UG
Presentation 2
Elford Liverpool, Lecturer II, UG
Presentation 3
Dr Loic Martin, Postdoctoral Fellow, IRD
Panel Question and Answer
Patrick Ketwaru, Senior Lecturer, UG
Session 2 – Findings
Introduction to session An overview of the focus of the session and
introduction of the presenters
Heetasmin Singh, Lecturer II, UG
Presentation 1
Dr Loic Martin, Postdoctoral Fellow, IRD
Presentation 2
Rochelle Bynoe, BSc, UG
Presentation 3
Benita Davis, BSc, UG
Panel Question and Answer
Heetasmin Singh, Lecturer II, UG
Presentation 4
Sarah Singh, BSc, UG
Presentation 5
Joanna Faith Hope, BSc, UG
Presentation 6
Trimal Accra, BSc, UG
Presentation 7
Kezia Albert, BSc, UG
Presentation 8
Tonya Bowman, BSc, UG
Panel Question and Answer
Heetasmin Singh, Lecturer II, UG
Presentation 9
Bibi Nafeeza Amin, GIS Analyst, GFC
Presentation 10
Stephan Moonsammy
Panel Question and Answer
Heetasmin Singh, Lecturer II, UG
Session 3: – Mitigation
Introduction to session
Dr Shanomae Rose, Senior Lecturer, UG
Presentation 1
Rene Edwards, Technical Director, CI-G and Dayshawn Billingy, Consultant
Presentation 2
“Ms. Shemeiza Thom, Mineral Processing Engineer, GGMC”
Presentation 3
Godfrey Scott, Senior Environmental Officer, GGMC
Panel Question and Answer Dr Shanomae Rose, Senior Lecturer, UG
Closing remarks for the Day
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer,UG
END OF DAY ONE
Welcome back and synopsis of day 1
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer,UG
Round Table Discussion
Session overview, objectives and rules
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Facilitated discussion
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Welcome
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer,UG
Opening Remarks
Aiesha Williams, Country Manager, WWF-Guianas,
Diane Menard, Chief of Projects, Ozone, Pollutants and Circular Economy, FFEM (Via Zoom)
Overview of programme
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Presentation 1
Dr Laurence Maurice, Director of Research, IRD
Presentation 2
Dr Loic Martin, Postdoctoral Fellow, IRD
Presentation 3
Aiesha Williams, Country Manager, WWF-G
Facilitated dialogue
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Conclusion
Lawrence Lachmansingh, Forest Governance Facilitator (Guyana)
Overall concluding remarks
Dr Laurence Maurice, Director of Research, IRD
Aiesha Williams, Country
Manager, Guyana, WWF-Guianas
Calvin Bernard, Senior Lecturer, UG
Chapters
Welcome 0:00
Opening Remarks 3:38
Overview of programme 14:30
Presentation 1 16:48
Presentation 2 36:57
Presentation 3 47:51
Facilitated dialogue 1:02:10
Conclusion 2:14:10
Concluding remarks 2:20:16
Welcome back everybody so you you are what we call in Workshop technology we call you guys the hardcore participants the ones who stay till the very last session on the very last day I’m sure a few others will join but um we must proceed lest we keep you here
Longer than you wish to be kept we have this afternoon I I think a kind of a mix of styles we’ll start with a couple of sort of introductory inputs including three presentations so that’s why you kind of facing this way for now and by the way thank you very
Much for your wonderful cooperation in getting us to this point much appreciated then after the presentations we go into a Q&A and that’s where this format is designed for so that we can have a more collaborative Community looking kind of space where we’re speaking with each other and not across
The room at each other or upstairs and downstairs kind of thing cool so that’s to explain why we’ve made this move again thanks very much for your help now just to kick us off I’ll ask Calvin to perhaps give us a few words of welcome after which we’ll have a couple of
Inputs from WWF so Calvin so good afternoon everyone and um it feels strange for most people saying welcome again because I told you welcome this morning uh but for those who came late like de Sean um and and Miss Davis is shaking her head because she know she came really
Late I will say welcome and uh I see see another person from G ggmc uh say welcome think we’ve been here now a day and a half plus and going on and it’s been very very uh meaningful and I I I feel like I have a sense of
Purpose in this setting like you know all of the work that went in over the last couple of weeks means something uh so this whole engagement I think um the the possibilities uh of what what emerges out of this uh are uh very very significant uh for the institutions and
For um for uh the country as a whole and the mining sector in in particular uh so with that this particular engagement is is was intended to be different on I’m really looking for the new faces um the the other folks that I guess are you know traditional gyes thing will come in
Perhaps a little later on but uh again welcome back uh to this new session and really it’s this this part is is run by um Lai as he has on his name badge when when that name first came up it was completely strange to be saying it but
In person it seemed a little better online it was really weird and you back to Lawrence and he’s the one taking us through this entire session thanks Galvin now I went to my high school call name because um we had a laurance So to avoid confusion Lawrence and laurance they just call me
Lchi but um yeah so WWF has played a key role in the process so far and for the next few minutes we’ll hear a few words from them for the benefit particularly of those who are just joining us the WWF has been a key player in organizing and
Supporting this gold mining in Guyana Mercury project so it’ll be done in two parts first we’ll hear from country manager Aisha Williams whom we all have been working with at least those who are here for the last day and a half Aisha the floor is yours thank you very much
Uh I have to think before I say oh lchi that’s it perfect um thank you very much uh for being here everyone uh good afternoon I see very few new faces very few so I I’ll keep my remarks short considering uh most of you have been
Here for the last um day and a half and now going into two days um um I’m Aisha Williams country manager for uh our office here in Guyana WWF Guyana I’m also conservation lead which I’ve reduced somewhat when it comes to public and covering both Guyana and
Seram um and I’m grateful to be here and more so we are happy to be co-hosting this conference and now this stakeholder discussion um with the University of Guyana thanks to Calvin’s leadership from the University side to to bring all of this together and really identify the
Key areas where we need to discuss and also to plan for I like the plan for part uh because after discussion often times um people expect action and you want action and and that’s the only way that you’ll get changed the discussion is very important however um seeing
Action afterwards is is is even more key to to having change uh this conference is part of our our um supporting Mercury phase out in the guyana’s project which we are in the final year of implementation um WWF guyana’s WWF France my colleagues are here and um ird Institute for research and development
Shortened and Alliance for responsible mining who you have not heard from um are partnering these are the lead key part uh implementing partners that have been implementing this project over the last two and a half three years and the focus as the name suggests really um is
To work with Partners in both Guyana local Partners in both Guyana and in Surinam and to some extent learning from French Guyana on identifying um areas Technologies uh practices um and including um uh using um a results based approach in terms of mercury data to um support both countries in shifting from Mercury
Use in gold mining um or at least reducing the use of um Mercury and gold mining our Focus has been on the um small scale sector um and we are now developing the the pilot sites where we’re using uh developing Technologies or using Tech new technology to um work with miners to
Reduce or remove the use of mercury we’re still getting there um we’re in the final year so we do hope that um we would be able to demonstrate at least um some things that are plausible um and acceptable by uh small scale Miners And I think more than ever
This has has been a learning uh exercise for us uh WWF in terms of convening stakeholders convening um partners and organizations as to how we can find solutions to work through some of these the issues of gold mining environment and human health and this conference is really focused on the the health aspect
Of it environmental and human health aspect of it and looking at data and information as to how we can um understand what the impacts and risks related to Mercury but also other impacts from Gold Mining and how we can reduce understand what the impacts are and then finding solutions to address
Them so we address it in the aspect of understanding the data but then looking at the practices aspect of it and also in a bit of um uh policy um and coordination among stakeholders ERS and arranging how we can work together to address the issue and and this is really captured
Within the mission of WWF uh where we aim to see um people living in harmony with nature and it’s not when you hear WWF you think about wildlife and we definitely are not focused on that only at least that’s not the interest of of myself our director
That just came in uh that’s not in the interest um of him and many other of our colleagues here in WWF we we are focused more on that holistic look of life within um in on land and water around our environment and in countries looking at the context of people and how they
Live and how they interact with the environment and nature and how we can find better ways for that interaction to to be positive and benefit for people and also for nature and so that project really captures that um that mission of WWF and so we thank you for being a part
Of this discussion identifying Solutions and actions of how um there can be changes even in this final year of our implementation of our project we can utilize some of the uh inputs that are were made here especially today and even discussed yesterday um to really uh um you know
Make an impact in how um our project that we’re implementing currently can at least set some um starting areas or starting points or build on what’s already being done um to really make that change within the gold mining sector but also uh influence um policy how stakeholders and partners work
Together in addressing these issues we really selected to have not only a broader stakeholder discussion but really look at science scientists researchers technical persons coming together and having that discussion next week we will be visiting different communities also and sharing this kind of information in a different way and having the discussion with
Communities in a different way also and so we thank you for contributing to this and we look forward to this uh final part of the discussion as we move forward and and okay and um we have uh our donor partner uh online Dian Menard uh from
The I you you heard me say this a couple of times or I’ll say it a couple of times over the last two days that uh this project that I just spoke about is is financed from the French um envir enironment facility or the French Jeff
As I call it and um Dian is online I’ll just ask her to just introduce herself self and say a few words and thank you for listening to [Applause] me hello can you hear me hello okay um good morning I guess for you or afternoon everyone um I’m really happy
To to be there and to to to be able to at least uh follow part of the of the workshop uh you have today um so uh just to introduce myself quickly I’m Diane Menard I’m a project officer in in the French facility for global environment and in charge of uh the
Portfolio of project on pollution uh circular economy and waste management uh so the French facility for global environment is really pleased actually to to support this very important uh Pro project um this is a a topic that we are really interested in and and really happy to be able to support um key
Stakeholders in in the country uh in in undertaking um activities uh this is something that we are really trying to support as much as possible within our funding um so hopefully I I I will be able to join at some point and meet you in person in the country uh but for
Today I’m I’m really happy to to participate online or at least to be able to to follow part of the session online thank you friends will join us this afternoon because this is the session where we were hoping to have a wider stakeholder discourse hopefully over the course of
The next three presentations we’ll have a few more of those friends come join us and in the meantime those who are kind of hanging on the wings um s Liverpool Dr Singh welcome feel free to come join us in the circle here um so that we can
Have a little more of a Cod cozy Community feel if there yeah there are a few chairs in front here and I think a couple we can always small up we uh over here as well cool we’re g to have three um presentations the first is on the state-ofthe-art
On asgm impacts on the Mercury cycle from emissions to the human exposure for about 15 20 minutes we’re going to be walked through and Dr laurance there’s no s no strange she was in group number two all this morning discussing about dialogue and policym but Dr I don’t know
If you would like to use the podium or if you’d like to do it from your right so we’re going to need the little clicker clicker thing and we have some slides so please yes would you like to walk around or would you like to just the mic okay here
Okay good uh good afternoon um I’m happy to uh share with you some uh general knowledge on Mercury cycle and the impact Act of uh AGM on this uh on this cycle I won’t speak about the result we obtain in Guana and in Surinam in the frame of the project
Um I had just presented before because we presented that yesterday and uh well it was more um it’s more a presentation a general presentation of what it’s occurring mainly in South America and why it’s uh it’s important to uh to deal about this uh this issue so I I first
Apologize for all the participant who were there yesterday because I will repeat most of uh of the of my talk yesterday but uh shortly so I I’ll do my best to Um I do my best to respect 15 15 minutes so next one please I don’t have the next one one yeah so uh just a a general view of um the origin of mercury emissions all over the world in terms of uh geographic distribution I’m sorry I don’t have the the point Um yeah but I wanted to no no but I wanted to show something on the slide yeah so this is the geographic distribution of the Mercury emission all over the world and the distribution by uh country by region so you have here the first uh region in terms of mercury emission in
The atmosphere is mainly Asia with with China because one of the main anthropogenic source of micro emission are the coal plant are the energy production by by coal Coal combustion and the first country in terms of this kind of energy combustion is H is China so here you have mainly the Mercury
Emission due to uh industrial and energy production in in Asia and and in China here are the emission Mercury emission from South America and you will see in the next slide that uh whoops that the Mercury emission in uh in South America are mainly due by ahm
By artisanal and small scale good good mining uh it’s about 53% of uh total micro emission due to the due to the activity the activity is so it’s very important here in South America but also in uh in Africa mainly in West Africa whether the activity is highly developed
Too uh the other source of um so regarding the the part of the AGM in global Mercury emission in the in the atmosphere ASM is responsible of 38% of the Mercury emission at the global scale so it’s quite quite high this um these data are published were published recently in
2018 uh hgm is also the first source of mercury in the rivers in hydr system and it has been estimated to to reach almost 900 tons per year of Mercury so it’s mainly uh particulate Mercury but Mercury soled on on particles which enter after s erosion into the rivers uh
South America as I told you is responsible of 53% of uh of mercury emission um by only by aggm but it’s not only the the only the Mercury emission is not only due to the burning to the Aman burning but it’s mainly due also to another process uh to the soil to the
Increasing of the soil erosion uh because when you are uh logging when you are cutting trees and so on when you are deforesting the mining area of course you are increasing the erosion process which increase the input of mercury into the rivers so this uh this activity the
Mining de forestation is is also very important and it has grew up sixfold in between 1985 and 2020 uh only in the in the Amazon region uh of course AGM is also a large contributor of gold Supply over over the world is uh it R about 20% of the of the
Global Lo Supply and um this gold of course is several years in jary uh 46 person retirement M funds electronics and also uh National Treasure and especially and this treasure can increase in uh in crisis uh period like like now um the AGM so it’s interesting to
See the number of uh employment it uh open so it’s we estimate between 14 and 80 millions of people directly involved in ATM all over the world so most of them in South America America and Eastern Africa but also and yesterday we had a very interesting um presentation
Of uh of Stefan is not here but from the University it also Finance conf I see you’re here it it it also Finance Conflicts sorry sorry it also Finance conflict and facilitate of course uh money U money laundering uh so mercury has natural sources too not only anthropogenic and the main natural sources are uh volcanic sources mercur emission and a lot of uh metals and toxic metals are emitted by the
Volcanic activities which is not pretty uh important here in in Guana and in s but in South America of course uh it’s it’s quite a it’s it’s an important Source Rock Dis deviation soil erosion as I told you before and uh we estimate that the geogenic emission natural
Emission reach almost 600 tons per year when we compare this ge commission to the an ogenic emission it’s quite low because the anthropogenic emission May reach 2,500 tons per year mainly due to uh the energy production as I explained to you coal plant uh mining activity of course
Mining uh Mercury mining gold mining Silver mining uh it’s also used in chemical industry in electrical industry uh some lamps for example uh low energy uh lamps uh also contains a a an important quantity of vapor Mercury so be careful uh not to break them in your in your
House uh it’s also used in dentistry in implants so there is um in in general in National Action Plan uh proposed by uh by the countries who ratify the the minamata convention they propos so to stop with uh implants with Dent implants that contain mercury and of course agriculture sure practices because uh
Deforestation uh also it’s an important has an important impact on the Mercury emission and biomass burning too when you are burning uh trees when you are burn burning the the forest um The Vapor or the or the Yum also contains Metals heavy metals and contains Mercury
Oops uh so to I would present just a simplified cycle of the mercury in a amm area in a gold mining area so uh as I explained to you when uh when when the fry and the biomass burning also the amalan burning the Mercury gold amalan burning emits mercury into the
Atmosphere mercury vapor of the Mercury we can find it in different forms in vapor in the atmosphere dissol in the water or sub onto the particles and um and Al so after after burning so it can the mercury vapor can be transported over hundred and hundred of kilometers in dry
Atmosphere and when it ENC contrs wet atmosphere this Mercury is reduced and can uh and can be precipitated and reach uh the forest the soils and also the the river and the lake and in the legs in the in the hdro in the aquatic hyos system you you have several processive
You have three important processes the first one is the methylation that is to say is the process that transform the inorganic Mercury coming from the soil erosion or from the atmospheric deposition onto the onto the soil it’s it’s meated that is to say it transformed into its organic form in
Methyl Mercury which is the neurotoxic form and later this this uh this Mercury is bio accumulated in individuals that are living into the into the river but also this Mercury is also bio Amplified biomagnified into the food chain so fish that are eating other fish are highly
Can be highly concentrated can be highly exposed to to the Mercury we estimated that um and and what is happening that the the the organic form the meal Mercury is the main form that is bio Amplified into the foot chain and in the first level of the traffic chain the
Meal micro content is around 10 or 20% but in pous fishes it’s almost 100% And The the ratio between the concentration we can measure in water which is around 1 NR per liter is really low uh compared to the concentration we can measure in muscles of uh pous fish the the increase
Can reach more than 1 to 20 Millions for so these process are highly important in the in naturally so we also can find in um in rivers in Amazonian Rivers High concentration of mercury in pous fish even in places where you don’t have any uh mining activities so the the factor that
Control the Mercury uh accumulation in the Tropic chain and in fish depends on several factors like the tropic level as I explained to you the pous fish are highly concentrated compared to omnivorous or um ferous the age and the size of of the fish but the age is most important the
Other side the growth rates uh when the growth rate is uh rapid the accumulation is um less important let’s wrapid ideologic period too because it depends on the feding of uh of the fish species of course one uh important point also is uh to know if the species you are eating
And you are studying are migratory or sedentary because if you want to um to know if this place is uh contaminated by microb due to to the human activity you should compare sedentary fish species between between them between different areas because the migratory species can live in other places and can of course
Eat um uh other fishes that uh that have uh that have been in other contaminated places so it’s important to compare what is comparable and of course the life places because what what we observe too is that the methylation process that it to say the process that is transforming the in
Organic Mercury on organic neur neurotoxic Mercury takes place mainly in Reservoir in lakes in flu plan leges um in sediments but also in uh in the roots of aquatic plants so certain places in the in in a drainage basin are specific places for mutilation process uh regarding the impact of the
Mercury in uh on human Earth what you observed since a long time the this one of my first work it was in in Bolivia more than 20 years ago we observe very high concentration very high exposure of amarian communities who were living some of them were living close to mining activities other
Completely far and the the micro exposure could uh could be very very high so the who the World Health Organization proposed uh a limit of 10 uh microgram per gram but we observe colleagues who are working in epidemiology observed that this limit is very high and the first symptoms can be
Observed uh with just half of this limit five microgram per gram so the specificity of the Amazonian population is that uh their dietary abits are the main source of micro the main source of micro of the people are the fish diets and the fish diet it’s
Important because it’s a first uh one of the first the source of protein of this population and also they’re of course um exposed to other uning disease like malaria uh yellow fever and so on and what we observed also is that U the high level of mro exposure reduce the immune
System so in general we can observe also uh well or and gold minerals but mainly in indigenous Community uh High rates of yellow fever ver of or um or Malaya uh which can be which can be increased by uh by the mro exposure and uh the sign of uh neurology deficiency appear for
High value of uh of exposure two minutes so the health risk depends on the forms of the mercury in which you are exposed in organic mainly for gold miners and uh and people are selling gold and gold shop and the organic mercur absorb by by diet uh well so the
Toxicity depends on their on the organic form and it can uh reach to a neurological disorder even for a liquid mercury and um and for so trembling is the most um the most effect we will see with good minor tbling and also the vision uh jivi and also Vision plane and
The toxicity of human of organic Mercury and um is also we can we observed um difference in coordination of the legs and and the arms we observe a decreasing of the vision uh we observe the color perception and and so on so to to monitor um organic Mercury exposure we
You we are doing analysis of human hair while to measure and to biomonitor the inorganic mercury in G miners the best biomaker is urine yeah so so it’s different you you have to take care of the biomaker you you use depending on the on the pathway of of
Exposure and it can reach of course um uh the immunity as I told you and a neurological disorder which can be irreversible mainly when the exposure is intra inra interal because the the mercury has a high affinity for the for the brain and uh and the ratio between
Uh Mercury concentration in brain and in blood is around around six uh well so we we worked a lot we have several uh several experiences in um in different countries in South America and uh we worked also in the the empowerment of local population and uh indigenous population uh we were living
Close to to rivers and we were thinking of how helping people to R use the the the exposure so of course as I told you the main um pathway of exposure is the diet the fish diet but the fish diet is also um important because it means preserving cultural tradition people are
Fishing so they continue they promote physical activity and so on it also avoid the the junk food and so what uh what we uh what the um a Canadian team organized in in Brazil is that they they propose some folders some Comics too to explain what what it can happen if you
Are exposed to to Mercury by uh by your diet on Vision impact on pregnancy whoops on pregnancy too we we do several campaign in in French Guana too uh showing the pictures of fish you can eat daily and picture of fish you may May avoid it once a week or once a month
Mainly for um people who are highly exposed can that can be a vulnerable population like pregnant women or or kids so in fren Guana we we reli this uh we did this poster after a lot of analysis we analyze almost 6,000 fish all over the all over the the
Country uh in uh in 10 years so all this information was really helpful to explain which kind of uh of fish people could uh could eat and uh and other could could avoid and we observe in the tapases river and also in French Guana decreasing of the Mercury exposure in
This community after uh years of uh information campaigns so I’m finished thank you for your attention thank you losos yes I didn’t have that bad behaved co- faat here today so he’s he’s parked thank you very very much we’ll move on to luck uh who will speak about gold
Mining and its environmental impacts going Beyond Mercury so please welcome Lon Lo sorry [Applause] yeah so good afternoon I hope the the nap was good after this lunch so uh as Lauren said I will speak about gold mining and its environmental impact going Beyond Mercury because we we spoke
A lot about Mercury doing those no I will try to follow your advice and uh avoid speaking with my hand and so on so I will try to to keep close to the mic okay so speaking about uh environmental impact of Mer of gold mining sorry and going Beyond Mercury
It’s I gathered in those in this presentation some uh studies and and experience from many places around the world and it’s not focus on Guyana mostly stuff from French Guyana actually a bit from Surinam Peru even Mongolia so just to to highlight the fact that there
Is not only Mercury uh as an issue sometimes when we check at the uh impact of gold mining activi this stuff don’t like me yeah doesn’t like me because I will have the same issue as yesterday doesn’t ah thanks so just to start with uh I I want to speak about
The rock to ratio uh Rock to metal ratio uh it comes from a a new study it’s a one last year and it’s it’s about uh the amount of waste rock tailings and uh processing losses that we we have during the production of one unit of uh finished metal so uh
Basically it means that uh during the mining uh during the mining your commodity or targeted metal is H diluted in a parent rock and you need many processes to reach uh the the the last step of the pure metal that you want and when you look at gold uh which is here
On the graph so it’s here the rock to ratio and all the Commodities here it’s gold and you see that he has the highest uh Rock to metal ratio value in all the Commodities in the that we have on us so it means that we have that mining activity gold mining activities they
Generate the highest amount of tailings and rock waste that we could have when we do mining for this metal so again sorry that can you so of course it will generate a lot of impact we can imagine that uh so here I just put I put it three pictures it’s
Those one are from Guyana it’s from Maja one is in the potaro river it’s one of the dredges that you can have and you can see some of the impacts that we have with this uh mining activity we have here uh destrction of river banks uh also modification of the sediment transport
Because you see that there is a sunand bank somewhere where we not supposed to have one here you have a destrction of the soil you have also in all of them uh Forest degradation dri deforestation of course uh this was also presented yesterday a lot over erosion and
Inreasing of turbidity and this make me make uh make me do a quick link to to Mercury because uh as I presented the result of the project yesterday we saw that there is no liquid mercury pollution but it doesn’t mean that there is uh no higher rate of mercury in the
System meaning that by over erosion we increase the fluxes of mercury in the system and then what happen with metil and transfer to the biosphere and transfer to the food chain this we don’t know so erosion is also so a key impact of uh mining gold mining
Activities uh so the first yeah I wanted to insist a bit of also deforestation and Forest degradation because it could add more uh to bidity in the river or more over erosion uh in addition to the mining activity itself uh here is the figure for Guyana uh presented already
Here here I just wanted to show this study from madri in Peru all the the color you have here are the the mining sites and they saw that uh yeah 100,000 of hectares were of forest were lost uh during the those mining activities which is huge in the
Last 30 years uh here we see also that there is a significant change in Forest covered in South America due to gold mining uh deforestation as I said uh trigger additional erosion also in this paper they they saw that the the Sol erosion was increased by two to four times due to to
Deforestation uh in this paper it’s it’s from Mongolia so there is no Forest of course but just to highlight that even when there is no Forest the the show study shows that the soil erosion is increased by gold mining uh so what are the consequences of uh those
Impacts uh there is quite uh some uh the first one is uh it’s not by order of importance since it’s just a list uh so we have uh CO2 emission of course with deforestation and and loss of carbon storage due to that uh also the fossil
Fuels uh used to produce energy to do gold mining they are quite uh uh important and this paper I like the fact that in the tapajos river in Brazil uh one kilogram of gold uh needed uh 16 tons of CO2 meaning that for instance I’m coming from tulus in France it
Represent 10 trips from Georg toown to tulus by plane uh return which is huge uh also you have loss of biodiversity uh so destruction of habitats and ecosystem due to deforestation again but also because of high level of turbidity there is mud going to the river bed and the plant are
Dying uh we have destruction of soil our river banks this paper from from French Guyana uh used e DNA to to to assess the level of biodiversity damage and erosion in the Maroni River at the border with with with seram and they so here for for
Fish and here for mammals that uh in De the more there is deforestation uh the more there is an erosion uh of biodiversity and in those area we know that deforestation is uh 85% of gold mining activities uh you also have a loss of water quality there is an increase of
Pathogen in the river uh theosis a sherish shaki for instance you have an increase of turbidity and metal pollution so the quality of drinking water is uh lowering and of course we have uh a loss of resources like uh loss of farming possibilities due to to so
Degradation uh loss of Fisheries in the Marin River again in French Guyana uh repan people they they are really concerned about that and they saw that their fishing uh resource fish resources has decreased over the years also hunting opportunities because there is uh biod loss of biodiversity but also
Competition with some uh miners sometimes uh especially in French Guyana but it’s another context so you see that there is a lot of impacts and it generate concern and and I will finish on this slide it’s this is a press release that was done by the Amazonian
Um national park in French gyana the the scientific ccil of this uh of this National Park and and you see that the the three more important uh impact that they were lighting during this press release was sedimentary pollution loss of water quality and decrease of fre
Resources and Mercury is not uh on this list so again uh that’s the the goal of this presentation it was to to show that there is not only mercury in in term of uh gold maning part and on the environment thank you thank you very much
Lori yeah I I didn’t even get to use this one we never used this one for the whole conference and it just came and man I I I’m so disappointed look you you beat me to it man thank you very very much you’re welcome so we have one more
Very very important presentation by Aisha Williams she’s going to do a synopsis of some of the major things that have come up so far with a particular emphasis on this morning because remember for those of you who just joining us now this morning we had four groups where we focused on specific
Aspects of the topic environmental and human health considerations specifically we looked at and I’ll ask for help from the participants here we had one group that looked at standardization of methods and Technologies so that we can improve those standards for improved measurement and stuff like that the second group looked at strengthening the
Connection between the knowledge we’re creating and policymaking processes how do we feed the learning into policies regulations Etc a third group looked at Community empowerment based on access to information an important piece of the puzzle and the fourth group looked at new research and Innovation like what next scientifically and also from an
Innovation point of view do we want to suggest for the future so that’s for those again who missed this morning that’s what we did uh before lunch so without any further Ado I’ll ask Aisha to take the floor and walk us through a synopsis y’all ain’t going to welcome the lady oh
Oh I had one clap already so not again good afteron again everyone I’ll try to do um quickly just go through the synopsis um for the conference for the benefit of the few that weren’t here uh yesterday I’ll just spend a minute or two just to touch on a few points that
Were presented yesterday um and then also look a little bit uh about today as as as Lawrence said so um the aim of the conference uh is to create a common space to discuss the assessment and Reporting methods of environmental and human health issues related to Gold Mining and to explore approaches to
Mitigate these issues and also strengthen collaboration and research um collaboration for research and Community empowerment and we have had a number of um representatives from organizations NOS um uh state agencies um Association um the mining Association um and and other students um researchers and um we during day one
There are number of issues that um were presented but also discussed around methods research methods findings and also mitigation as it relates to gold mining environment and um human health uh we touched on some key themes uh such as environmental responsibility sustainable and safe environment piloting and testing of mercury free
Technologies uh protection of people and environment promotion of use of economical um economically friendly and user friendly technology for miners uh we talked about health and safety uh and um exposure to hazardous chemicals impact of mercury use and um water quality and and Aquatic Life and so those are some of the areas
That we touched on and what we did today really is to delve into some of these issues that we heard over the last um over yesterday and this topics we we divided into four groups um expertly uh facilitated by Lawrence here again um and we had uh four groups in the room
And uh participants online um uh were of course in one group there were a few part participants online and so there were four topics we um each of these groups addressed and he online did all four of the topics um uh the four areas that we we covered during this morning one group
Focused on standardization of methods and Technologies for mercury assessment the second group focus on impli implications of current knowledge on Mercury to improve dialogue with policy makers third group a community empowerment initiative based on access to information and we talk a little bit of um a Mercury Observatory um we knew
About and the fourth group uh covered uh next steps for research and Innovation as I’ll try to um just give you a short um Co synopsis of of what each of the group uh covered but also what were their assign their assignments so for group one under standardization of methods and
Technologies um for mercury assessment uh they were asked to discuss what methods and Technologies should be standardized for future assessments and how might that stand standardization be achieved and we had a number of scientists um uh uh researchers and maybe technicians in that group and they really did some of some strong science
Discussion um some of it went over my head even though I’m science-based um but on on the biology side I’m on but um it was useful because uh they discussed and presented to in the plenary uh the focus on standardization of of of methodologies um what practices work what practices um
Should be adopted um and they found they said that it was um there should be a valid protocol um it’s that’s important not only for sampling but also for analysis um sampling preparation is important um and especially it it once we have those uh strong uh protocols for
Sampling and Analysis uh it makes the the the the work very efficient but ensuring that um that the data that’s produced the results that that that that would be produced is reliable and quality data important also to note the emphasize uh having um instrumental collaboration I remember clearly that um
Calibration drwing uh analysis also not at the start and then the next time but really during the the process and even after um a few samples being analyzed there should be calibration um just to wrap up they indicated that uh the best way to ensure that across the board both nationally
But also the region and globally is to have um collaboration across uh Labs um laboratory uh for for for strong laboratory analysis to have um collaboration across the board not only in country but globally um and having mou or agreements among the Laboratories so that the protocols that are developed
Are agreed by all and um and so that they can be um um utilized by all uh based on that collaborative effort of developing good protocols and then of course agreeing to utilize them for the strong reliable science and Analysis that we all can use group two uh they focused on implications of
Current knowledge and mercury to improve dialogue and policym and with policy makers so not having scientists on this side and policy makers on the other side but how how can we um have uh that that um connectedness um with these two two groups and I say groups not that they’re
They’re they’re um separate from each other but there can be the good conversation good sharing of knowledge and use of knowledge in decision making uh for for strong policies their assignment was um um what given the current knowledge on Mercury what are the apparent public policies and policy adjustments and
Adjustable tactics and strategies for dialogue with policy makers so group two said um they give a basic overview of the current policies and procedures um on Mercury and gold mining uh they they discussed some of the obstacles and livers related to um this issue uh or these issues um they they reflected on
Regulations um and legislative framework um some they identified that are may be outdated um and which also affects implementation enforcement and seeing impacts on the ground as policy is intended if it’s outdated then there’s a challenge there in ensuring that there is um positive change um they also uh noted a discrepancies between
Shortterm economic gains and long-term Health implications um which uh sometimes frequently are overrided so that’s group two um group three this is this is the group that I was in but I’ll read what I see here and not to go overboard on on the group that
I was in so we focused on community empowerment initiative based on access to information we talked a little bit um or or about the Mercury uh Observatory of the Amazon that WWF Brazil um developed but has now transferred to the Amazon Corporation treaty and so we discussed um not only about the
Observatory but other areas of um Community empowerment and providing information so the the focus was to say to to to indicate what are effective and efficient modalities for community to access Mercury related information um and so the and focused on also on addressing the needs of persons in various communities especially those
Affected by mining so how can we um address their needs um and we also discussed having Insight on um the importance of having technical information and ensuring that it’s accessible and in a manner that that uh community members can understand and can relate to but also use in the decision making or
Advocacy um and there are different modes of um you know sharing information and ensuring that we understand what community need communities need and also how they would like to interact with the information that’s provided we also talked about um not only providing information to communities but also how
Communities can uh give can give input into the kinds of research that is done so setting the research agenda and not scientists or researchers setting the uh in in institutions setting the the um the agenda for research only but having the scientists in communities having the researchers that are community members
Giving input into the research agenda um it it was also important it was identified also that it’s important to have um information readily available for um all ages uh including students also using citizen science um and having that um important here again having that bottomup approach we talked about using existing
Mechanisms like the national two shelves Council and um other s the The Village Development Pro Plan process to really um influence what sort of research and what sort of information is provided to communities um for communities and um touching back on the observatory we talked about it might it
Would be important to not only look at that um the information at a broad scale on the observatory that exists at the Amazon level but how can we make the a similar um platform for information locally available at this at the scale uh for communities um and that they can
Access for their respective communities for group four we that group spoke about next steps for research and innovation their assignment um uh was really to focus on bearing in mind uh research um already done in Mercury what are the next key steps that should be considered when it
Comes to Future research and what are the opportunities to develop Innovative research approaches and Technologies and they discussed a lot around um um Mercury naturally occurring Mercury or um or human um um or Mercury occurring in environment um through human actions they also spoke about occupational health and safety and and
Developing uh proactive approaches uh for monitoring and evaluating Mercury which um will Allow moving forward and so by doing this we will be able to identifi identify sorry hot spots and establish Trends uh so that the listic holistic view of mercury and Mercury impacts can be understood thank you I bring the blackout I hope not so the first question in Q&A is how come
This pistem still working in blackout just okay it’s back up okay all right so before we proceed I want to ask um for us to further reconfigure the room so that we complete this circle here and how that could happen is if the folks who are sitting on the
Fringes this side and that side if you could just bring your chairs and complete the circle so we can um not have a back and front conversation but you want to just you can come in this space if you want that’s all right that’s all right everybody manage to get
In you might have to push back how much more people need to get in if you can make it slightly bigger yeah okay so I see people are already taking advantage of um the opportunity to take a coffee break I think we should actually keep rolling till we
Finish I don’t think we should stop for a coffee break so that being said um not that you all need to get up and run right now cuz I know you just had lunch but if you feel the urge to grab a beverage or grab a snack just feel free to without
Disruption just quietly gracefully go get your thing and come back cool um so we’re going to integrate the coffee break into the work and that way we can finish sooner right Bita you’re nodding you like that all right cool um now let’s just quickly check around the
Room who is new from the previous day and a half who is here this afternoon for the first time no you were here this morning this afternoon yeah talking with the Freshies for this [Laughter] afternoon cool so everybody here is familiar with things so but let me just
Just in case I mean I know David is new he can’t hide from it but he’s ignoring me right now I was going to check and see if any new people had any questions for laurance or l l but since there are no new people but just to check any
Questions for clarification based on the presentations from the technical presentations from Dr L Ro and Dr Lu any questions comments yeah Patrick hi good afternoon again um I’m looking you were talking about a lot of um soil erosion and erosion generally right so and you were looking at
Mercury and that kind of stuff but one of the things that that we know is that we have some other toxic Metals within the sediments things like Arsenic and so I believe you need to start looking at those also because when we do this when you look at the kind of disruption of
The soil and the and the lower clay levels that that you get when you do the mining also when these guys eating into the bank the way we do our our River mining are into the things right there’s a lot of um turbulence and a lot of
Breaking up of the um the soil and I think you can very easily remove a lot of or I could say free a lot of these um heavy metals that can be toxic from various um uh with various mechanisms of toxicity so I think that might be
Something we would we would want to look at I can think immediately about arsenic yeah it’s for sure it’s the same is as long as you increase the the sediment in the system you increase the fluxes of of metals coming from the from the particles that are in the system so
It’s the same as mercury the only way is that different is that there is we we don’t know the what there is in the in the rivers now so we we need to analyze the sediment and so on WE to be honest with the project we we collected some
Sediments we analyzed it for mercury and we also did some uh uh experiment analysis for the for the metal content of the sediment not for Guyana for seram only now but we don’t have the result yet it’s really long to to work with but yeah basically yeah we we need to check
Also what there is in in those Rivers uh in addition to that Patrick I just want to say that the geology Minds commission has over the years been doing geological sampling at a reconnaissance level across Guyana and arsenic antimony and some other minerals and elements like that so there
Are people in Guyana right now who have a good idea where there are arenic highs and I could tell you tasini is one Mori mountain is another one araka is another one and further down the road from araka so we know that once you cut those rocks
You facilitate the the the the movement of the elements into a pathway that others may wish to utilize and then have an arsenic is is a slow very very slow poison so it could be going off for 15 20 years before you get hit hard with it so any reaction
Luron let me reacting to yourself I I call two names tasini Chinese Landing is the same place and the Arsenic is evident in the material there and it’s been evident for over 75 years Mori mountain is an active mining area uh very active mining area in ronon and arsenic was identified since
1949 and people are drinking the water and working there so I’m saying there’s activity going on right in the middle of an arsenic presence yeah thank you for your question I I just wanted to insist on the specificity of the mercury in the hydro system of course so rsion increase the input of
Other metals toxic Metals but only Mercury um is uh subject to the three processes I presented methylation bio accumulation and bio magnification in the food chain we don’t observe that with arsenic we don’t observe that with lead we don’t observe that with other toxic metal so I think
That it’s also important to keep in mind the specificity of this metal in the hydro system even if the concentration are very very low and it the case everywhere uh the this methal is subject to three to the three processes that uh may affect uh the the environmental Earth and human Earth
Okay just to comment and on the issue with things like r iic and so is that it bio accumulates in the organism right and remember things like Arsenic and so can be picked up quite easily by some kinds of um foods that we grow right so
If we know have soils that have high arenic content and we’re going to see um promote agriculture in that area right we would then have to start looking at it how how how is it being phyto accumulated into the into the plant and then based on that maybe um
Start looking at mitigation processes and those kind so that’s why I’m getting that’s where I’m getting at because when you know um break up the soil as you said from the mining areas right and they fly and if you were to look at um uh at at at araka and those places that
The mang dust is very fine it flies all over the place it flies into people houses and all at least I know it used to do that I don’t know if it if the metod they’re using now does that also and that can carry the the the
Contaminant and there will be a gradual buildup within the organism that is um absorbing it so that is where I am coming from in terms of that kind of um bioaccumulation by the organism as you said over a number of years and coming back to the same thing with Mercury you
Know know people I’m PR you’ve seen this in in the in Minds after they make the malgam and they squeeze it out with the Kief and so some of those guys put the their amalgam knot as they say in their mouth bite it to to to actually get out
More Mercury and then the guys who just confli spit the Mercury back into the battle you know it’s crazy so so I do agree with your point it said I think for last yesterday in which you said we don’t see too much of the things I guess maybe it’s because um we’re very
Fortunate here in some you know we get some Divine dispensation when we look at the amount of stupid things we do and we still survive you’re talking about traffic I guess um so colleagues just so that this doesn’t degenerate into another scientific discussion we’re trying to get past the description of the work
That’s been done and the particular challenges because we spent the the whole morning kind of looking at trying to unpack that right what I want to do maybe for the next 5 10 minutes is to introduce my co- facilitator he’s been anxious to meet you um but he’s very violent so we need
To remove anything that has liquids or glass from off of the table like I see a cup with some drink there he is very violent he might knock that over Sim Teacups are also in danger spectacles possibly phones are okay so this is my co- facilitator what I want to do is
Introduce him to you so you know who the rule with him is whoever is holding it gets to speak so if you want it you have to Signal the person who has it and they will throw it to you it’s not a gentle pass meong kind of thing is a toss
Around the room kind of thing he’s going to help us with three things what what I propose we do is have a quick session to see if we can identify and tease out what are some of the absolutely crucial topof the list priority problems particularly those that would affect
Communities looking at the topic right environmental and human health considerations so just to tease out just quickly like what what do you think those are based on the discussions we’ve had yesterday but but particularly this morning and of course based on the presentation this afternoon after that
Let’s look at what may already be happening to try and address those problems maybe somebody somewhere else already has a process going on a project going on some kind of initiative being planned let’s toss those onto the table as well and then look at how do we um
What do you think we should do to sensitize some of these important stakeholders out there with regards to all of this and what are your thoughts on sensation sensitization processes to to make sure that the right audiences are being reached with the content that we’ve been grappling with here these two
Days so that’s how I propose we manage the remaining time today is that cool and then we’ll have a wrap-up at the end cool all right so let’s start just quick really quick reactions no dissertations necessary quick reactions what do you think are the priority problems from a human SL Community
Perspectives anybody want to take the first first effort otherwise I’ll just throw it and whoever it hits that’s it you’re it no volunteers come on guys you know each other there’s nothing to be scared of youran well done one of the priority points I think for sure came up
In group fours discussion which was the long-term effect on the health of the persons in the communities and how we go about establishing monitoring and mitigating those effects over time and keeping a current and solid database that are shared across multiple sectors with that information as wellow you you do want it first
Or I know I know right um uh to uh piggy back off of what Johan was saying I think coming back to something that was me also mentioned earlier looking at the mines that were closed years and years prior and looking at the downstream accumulation effects that are possibly occurring in those
Mines that have been closed um and seeing where and if there are Mercury deposits in and around those um those environmental areas such as the rivers that would be surrounding uh that mining area and um you could even extend it uh further into the wildlife within the
Area um in terms of the bush meat that the communities would be consuming the fish that the communities would be consuming so really narrowing down on the environmental impacts post Mining and trying to understand how much of an of an accumulation effect exists if any I’ve really bad him there you [Applause]
Go I was about to catch that all right thank you again um you know I often I I lecture Environmental Management at the um faculty of Earth and environmental sciences and you know one of the things that I often tell my students is that we really not managing
The environment you know modern nature can quite manage herself right what we are actually managing is people’s impact on the environment and at the end of the day what we really have in Environmental Management it’s a a fundamental issue of human behavior and that’s the core of it right even when we
Do the Natural Sciences we we are looking at the impacts as a result of some human action or human behavior and one of the things that has to be prioritized and probably is the hardest challenge and a challenge I often propose to my students and it’s
Quite difficult to answer is how do we actually change human behavior if we if we have particular impacts then we require the community to change their culture of practice and in doing so we need to understand the mechanisms to changing that culture of practice um we not having a discussion
Here about Mercury free Mining and the fact that it can potentially or has potentially Drive Mercury smuggling right and you know for us to alleviate even the conversation of mercury use we have to change that culture of mercury which means finding ways to incentivize Mercury free mining making it attractive because at
The end of the day these MERS looking at this from a business standpoint from a livelihood standpoint you’re not looking at it from an environmental standpoint and we have to be able to now align that environmental standpoint with the fact that these are businessmen these are employes employed persons who are making
A livelihood out of this and if we want them to change that that has to be changed in a way where it does not compromise that livelihood got two young fellas over here that just don’t want to join the group man what we must do with them you think the
Shy we give them a chance to ease forward but it’s hard for the ball reach you at that distance you know we got two seats right here waiting for you all over to you yeah one of the things that well I’ve attended um conferences like these before but one of the things that
Really stands out are not the key agencies that play a role in mining we have ggmc we have Ghana forestry commission few occasions we might have lands and Survey but I think what we would need is more Ministry buying natural resources always play plays a part but what about Ministry of Health vector
Control um apart from Ministry of Health education the other Ministries need to be more aware of what’s being done not only by the the agencies that they might fall under but by Ministries themselves I think if if we had that push from government officials I think we will have a
Stronger or send a stronger message so that miners could you know and and community members could be more involved thank you very much I I I don’t know if I caught it correctly but in governance there’s something called whole of government the idea that government is supposed to work like a
Unit even though they have different departments and Ministries and arms and so on they have to have a way of coordinating and working for Effectiveness can I keep it in silos so I hope I captured that right okay so it’s interesting because I I I recorded the same thing
Differently I I put in uh institutional collaboration because I was thinking about a little bit more than just I heard Ministries and Ministries leading through but I I I was thinking that it’s it’s more than just the Ministries um that would have to be uh collaborating
That would have to be involved um and I thought I’ve been kind of so I’m saying that I think it’s more than just uh the this notion of the whole government and Ministries involved but having institutions in general some of which may be governmental and some of which may be non-governmental some may
Be just State institutions not government institutions like the university for example um and yes so so that’s what I’m saying what I was hearing this is years of experience right but but when I was here I’m just thinking the way I heard what he was saying and and that’s I noted the
Difference in the between uh Lawrence and I and how we interpreted that yeah but which version of it Lawrence will catch for you the whole idea that you have to get agreement of several Ministries slash departments and then you have to priorize what needs to be done and the
Prioritization is what challenges people we just talked about Mercury as though you go in the field you check on Mercury you come back out you go back in and you check on arsenic you come back out and you go back in and you check an anony
What we’re talking about is hey can’t we just do a multi-element approach as we go along and try out what needs to be done and what could be done that calls for prioritizing what a government Ministry already did for uh in October dead budget gone up to Ministry of Finance
Already and then he comes along and says you know we could go and check for arsenic in araka and I said nobody budget finished for the year you have to be able to get over that yes you know what I’m saying is each Ministry does its budget finish with
That done with that and they come to a seminar like this and they say well I don’t have budget so so how is it bilateral or is a no this is multi I guess I still got my hands so I I I’m happy that I handed the
Ball over to you because not saying different things all I’m saying is that beyond the ministry there are other actors that are necessary for the same collaboration the same efficiency in in our acting and I I started I think it’s an appropriate Place perhaps to just throw something onto the table and I
Started discussing with a couple of folks around uh since this morning when uh it occurred to me uh and it’s just to to think about uh perhaps the usefulness of a more permanent collaborative that is focused on the the responsible mining right which would include all the Ministries and all the other possible
Actors thanks true so thank you so this little session we just had was just to try and tease out what’s what’s really burning for you right and I think we’ve got four really hot and I think very obvious topics one is this is the human health considerations is kind of the reason why
We started talking about Mercury anyway right because of the impact on human beings but of course there’s an impact on the environment as well so biodiversity is sort of in a corner not to diminish it but just to get it to fit um and then the second one here about the
Downstream accumulation and and how to deal with Mind En closures and what remains when everybody else is gone and nature has to deal with this stuff so that’s also been coming out changing human behaviors and cultures of course that could link to all of these right this could almost be cross cutting cuz
Stefan is right we’re not managing the environment anymore that we’re managing time we’re managing ourselves that’s the only thing we have control over really so that’s a interesting way of looking at it possibly a cross cutting and then we have this really lovely conversation about collaboration I just ended up here
I was trying to drill down starting with hold of government but no no it’s more than that it’s institutional collaboration and then you started to mention like Nos and like communities so we actually have a to have a way of collaborating now Calvin has just brought into the
Equation this idea of do we need a way of working that establishes a framework for collaboration whether it’s a platform an entity something that Fosters the collaboration and that’s actually the second question uh of the three that we want to finish today so the question is are there existing institutions processes
Platforms Frameworks that would facilitate us collaborating on any of these priorities or any other ones that you might know of I mean you know rather than reinvent the wheel I guess is the is the point is there something we can already start working with or building
On so the floor is open my collaboration friend is ready for you hi good afternoon everybody I used to play cricket when I was younger could still could still catch so I I’m from the ministry of Natural Resources I don’t know if I introduced myself before apologies for that Michelle awood I’m an
Environmental specialist with the ministry supporting policy and planning for the mining and Forestry sectors So within the ministry um there’s a national working group for the um um national action plan for the minimatic convention which specifically looks at the you know the Strategic activities under the nap so particularly related to
Mining and Mercury so um it was started last year we we well it was started ear earlier this year we we moved forward with looking at potential implementation of the nap and having a technical working group with the key players in the room to discuss that moving forward
But as Mr wford rightly said you know prioritization is always a a ticklish one in terms of this discussing which activities start first which activities start second who whose Ministry or whose agency has a necessary budget to support the activities that we’ve outlined and where we don’t have the funding where
We’ll get the funding from nevertheless it’s a platform that um can be seen as a potential collaborative and you know structure moving forward as we go to 2024 but just to be reminded um the the the key um like objective of that working group is specifically to address
The issues within the national action plan and specifically looking at Mining and mercury and the way that government sees us moving forward at least from now until 202 2027 with a phase reduction of the use of mercury in the um small and medium scale mining sector as or the
Asgm sector so that’s just one platform that exists and um of course within the ministry you know we’re a small Ministry and um we we are happy when we have support from different agencies different donors who are willing to support us with you know pulling things
Along um WWF has been one of those Partners who’s been willing to support a national working group and if there are others who are willing to support a national working group maybe the scope of a national working group can can be able to focus on if there are other
Emerging you know issues or challenges that can be addressed by one group of course you know we are welcome to do that but that’s just something that’s already existing and um with support it can grow into something that really has the type of presence to pull the different projects together pull the
Different activities together and and maybe see um tangible results um moving forward so um it’s a question that I just want can can I borrow your ball please thank you sir oh no oh oh all right go on I beg him nicely
Yeah um no I kind of got an A bit um of the answer to the question I wanted to ask but I want to ask it more specifically um because I like the base uh is the do you see a room for expanding the Mandate of that particular
Working group to go because you mention it specific to to Mercury and the minimat convention do you see uh potential for expanding um and and if I may make a comment in because I’m mindful based on some on experiences that sometimes when uh I know Michelle
Is is also I think you’re the the second focal point in of a Minima convention right so she didn’t say that I think it was important and I but I find sometimes that when persons come from uh lower levels than than than Michelle is operating in ministries they they’re apprehensive about saying what’s
Possible collaboration because they feel it’s a commitment I would like to ask with permission uh the facilitator that we consider this a technical dialogue right that is non-committed we asking what’s technically possible it may require some other things to be done in order to make it happen happen so let’s
Just think about what’s technically possible Point yeah and maybe we should have said that at the beginning nothing this is an exploration nothing formal or legal or binding we’re just trying to explore and absolutely right thank you very much Calvin so Patrick over to you yes um there is um an act National
Science research Council was it right um that was based more on science I remember we made an attempt I was in a group that made an attempt that was when Narin was around um we made an attempt to widen it where we were looking at the National Science policy that that was
Not just focused on science but was also focus on utilizing science and bringing all the the other stuff that is needed to drive development H in in in general what I find in the normal situation here is that we have a lot of silos as um you
Were saying earlier um lchi um we have silos right and uh there is also sometimes I I’ve I’ve I’ve seen instances where with within the same Ministry the the ring finger don’t know what the middle finger is doing right it’s so bad right and um so there’s a need for
Um more openness for one I think people need to be less protective of their Turf right and these are something that I find very important protection of turf right and uh that is the only way we’re going to widen the scope of collaboration because everybody wants to
Be the person who’s saying it the person is doing it and all of that I’ve actually seen we move from one minister to the next Minister and when the person the same person was working on the same project finishing it off you didn’t hear anything about the first minister right
And those are the kind of things we need to be aware of so fair critique of of these processes at the beginning you were you were um you’re mentioning about another group was there a second group science um the National Science policy um that was where we we were
Developing no not Council it’s National Science policy would which would fall on the Office of the President and part of it would have been a council and um it was supposed to be a real high Lev thing in which it was actually going to be cheered by the president so that we
Could get things happening right right that would have been part of it yes so just to clarify that that um this policy is still in existence or we have we have the draft and everything it actually went up to Cabinet one time when um president ramata was was was was
Was in charge it went up to there and then we had some Kickback from some supposedly Big Shots within the system because their name was not called and then um it was kind of thing but the document is still there it was done under a you a um UNESCO project within
The Ministry of Education on the insert right yes the the national science science and research um Council Act is still existing and we could even use that as a basis but we found it was limited with when we did an analysis of it what’s it called National Science resarch research
Council okay that’s interesting um before we move on just to check in and Michelle no pressure at all but Calvin’s question about the minamata working group and the scope again nothing binding at all but just your own perspective is is there any potential for expanding the Mandate thanks I and I
Respect that there there’s there’s no no pressure and yes I’m I’m also one of the um focal points for the minimatic convention between the ministry of natural resources and the Gana geology and Minds commission I mean from a policy and an implementation perspective um we work together to support the
Minimat convention and our obligations and in terms of you know is there potential for expanding the scope well I I guess this the reason why why remain this afternoon is really to listen to the um the outcomes from from this and to then you know report back to my
Ministry and um you know between Mr Lawrence and and Calvin you guys are in in communication with us um we we’ll we’ll try to see what’s discussed but from here I will move you know go back to the ministry and and indicate the appetite of our stakeholders and see what’s possible of of
Course and and that’s what I’m able to commit at this point point in time I hope it’s not you know like oh she a say nothing much but I mean that’s the commitment Lord of Mercy all right thank you very much um I just want to highlight one potential um
One potential Regional group that uh our faculty has been working with that’s the Seria Amazonia group as a Seria Amazonia group it’s a a technical and research group that our faculty has done some projects with they have recently did a project with um NASA uh to do some
Training on GIS and remote sensing and we had a couple of our lecturers participated in that training session so it’s a it’s a larger Regional body that we can look at at leveren because these are the kinds of issues that they that group tends to um work with and and I
Wanted to put one comment towards this entire process of formation of working groups and and in information based networks um been to a lot of conferences across the Caribbean over the years and this this conversation the same conversation in many other spheres of of of our society heard it in agriculture
I’ve heard it in trade I’ve hearing it in the environment um and Mining and there’s always one common thread that we we tend to bypass in these conversations and I was always going to putting more economic hat here at the end of these days these these things cost
Something right it it it requires some significant investment creating a working group creating a network database is not a it’s not a cheap thing and we don’t often Converse about who is going to be the ones to actually invest in this and and what i’ I’ve worked on
On databases and and unfortunate to say we we did our database for um Coastal research for Guyana and unfortunately the life of the database was correlated with the life of the funding that we had for the project all right um so the point I’m trying to get
At is if if you look at how some of these Network information na based networks operate in the more developed countries they have actually have a very strong privatized aspect they operate as a private service and being a private service that then generates the funding to continue to maintain and expand and
Invest in the development of it and now they could reach the point where they could invest in AI for these Network databases right um so that is something that we we have not really done here regionally we have never looked at how can we privatize our information and networks
And leveraging these networks and leveraging the private leveraging as a private product right now NASA is private privatizing their data services so that’s just to tell you where these organizations and they are one of the Premier institutes when it comes to data worldwide and they’re privatizing it so
If if the Mighty United States and NASA could do that then these are the types of thoughts that we need to put forward when we thinking about these ideas as well thanks very much Stefan sorry let me just give a a fresh voice um let’s prioritize if it’s okay I
I noticed there’s a lot of people haven’t spoken yet I’d love to hear more thoughts especially more thoughts on other processes we can consider thank you uh I think you speaking about the Atco group yeah okay um so yeah it’s interesting it’s an important initiative there is another
One called i ns initiative yes and we’re working together with the um AO group in in English uh it’s mainly a group of uh of scientists who are uh working on the it it’s main a group of scientists working on Amazonian issues mainly social environmental and sometimes political so
And I just wanted to add there is another initiative um in discussion now at the unep at the unep yeah which is uh we are trying to think to to develop uh GC a new group on pollution chemical compounds and waste yeah so it’s also can be a new platform for
Discussion from the unep yeah but scientists are welcome too and we are in discussion with yep to uh enter in this group in this gek that’s very interesting so we’re picking up a couple of local processes as well as na International Regional processes um I just as I have the
Microphone would the lowc carbon development strategy be a process that could be because it has a multi-stakeholder steering committee component to it which already includes stakeholders like women youth indigenous people private sector Etc and because the aims and goals of the lowc carbon development strategy relate firstly to
Forests and and uh and then of course to human development that needs to take place while you know we’re developing Wilds conser serving if you will so I don’t know I’m just throwing it out there it is a process we know it has funding so going to the question of
Maybe you know how do we access resources to get things done ah um a microphone for Arian uh it’s good that you mentioned that because it was something that I was also thinking about before um I’m not ofair with the details but I do know
That there is a section in the LCDs 203 which highlights um indigenous forests and the economic value that they’ll get from those forests so if there is something in relation to if they were to remove that forest for mining would that impact the economic value that they can
Get from that Forest so I was thinking about it in along the lines of that um so there’s that area of it to consider um fortunately or unfortunately I had to do a lot of work with the LCDs even when it was at ug when it came to ug I remember
Making a big input that energy was important is not just simply forestry services because if you don’t look at energy right and that’s how we kind pushed in a lot of the other energy issues when it first came around when it was now being developed in the earlier
Stage um but the thing is what I know of the LCD yes is that it is still limited along certain lines and it has the platform and maybe some of the foundation as well as the political support so what we may want to do with
That is expanded scope to to to allow it now to look at these other aspects so I can see it could be maybe the foundation on which we could build out a better um system in terms of a national development something related to the National development strategy I hear you
And and so sorry if I can before Calvin takes over it’s kind of sounding like we need a platform at a certain level maybe you want to call it a working level a technical level or whatever but then it needs to be connected to something larger perhaps at a national level
Exactly which allows us to have a national impact and then of course to be reinforced fored at a Regional International level by backward F focused attention so Calvin it’s it’s interesting um I didn’t say anything to Lawrence about this just now but that’s almost precisely intervention I wanted to make that
Things like the national science and research Council and like the LCDs those very high uh level uh engagements um they provide that nesting for what was have to be a lower level kind of technical working otherwise it gets lost it has to be able to come down to a level where it
Actually can hit the road and and move and then so that nesting I think is is absolutely perfect something that’s technical under a national umbrella that uh also gets support from a regional it gets that funding that permanent funding stream has the co oh he’s there I thought he was
Kidnapped M I got to catch this time sorry sorry that’s my B through that’s pull true I’d like to make a comment first and then thing uh my information is that the national development strategy has already in terms of LCDs has already captured Elemental areas necessary for
This research and in Mercury use and proper Mining and so on what has happened of course is that every body is busy so nobody gets down to the Integrity as to whether you did what you were supposed to do and you did what you supposed to do and who’s coordina and so
On the miners Association made a comment on the LCDs and the comment is is that the minor is there to mine and he would prefer to have engagement with one party coming in he really doesn’t want to see the malaria guy coming one day followed by the uh
Chicken gona guy followed by the health and safety person followed by the moery guy so he would prefer if there’s a guy wearing one cap and deals with the the effects the efficiencies and whatever else The Miner is supposed to take care of and so in our interest in the mining
Industry we want to promotee a Harmon approach to these interventions so that um we can see one face coming and taking care of all that we need to get done thank you Mr Wolford coincidentally on the forestry side they’ve been complaining bitterly the concession holders about having too many agencies
To deal with they come to Georgetown they got to go to GFC who sends them over to L and surveys who sends them across to EPA who sends them down the road to gr who sends them over to NIS and it’s like alphabet soup after a
While you know and after a while they might say know it’s easier not to comply let me just you know deal with it when the moment arrives so the point is well taken and I think it comes back to this question of governmental intergovernmental collaboration and how
Do we make systems easier for the persons who are relying and depending on those systems friendly government I suppose you could call it okay so let’s say we have some ideas of different types of processes says let me just check around quickly anybody got any other knowledge any other Intel
Informally of course of other processes that we can build on in pursuit of the agenda that we’ve been exploring for the last two days anything else going once going twice all right that being said ah oh sorry Bita my dear my apologies as is you I’ll bring it since I got bring the
No thank you very much no I was going to comment on the SS process that WWF had started and I think it’s not a standing committee that exists but the process that they started in 2017 was it 2017 yes shared resources joint Solutions so they started this collaborative approach with the international agencies
Government as well as communities and it was a good model that we can follow going forward in terms of sgm and how we address go mining in communities yeah WWF was LE it without UCA Netherlands without UCA Netherlands but it’s not something that is still in existence Sr jss yeah shared resources joint
Solutions so yes I think that was a good model and I think that that is an approach that should be reestablished if we’re going to deal with this I know you have arm and ir and all these people involved but there’s no local counterparts other than ggmc right with
It and us we’re here you can on ug exactly so just stops at that technical level and doesn’t come down to Nos and Civil Society actors but the SS process included Civil Society input and so when they come up with these research and the findings they now bring it to the um the
Community level or the Civil Society and we package that information in a way that we can take back to the community so that they can easily understand all these technical knowledge and I think that was important in the sjs process and should be important in any future
Collaboration that you might have so I will chore the ball to Aisha so she can add all the insights thank you yes um that was a project um it was Global um uh but in terms of what Bonita said the the the interest was to ensure shared resour
Sources joint Solutions as in having um NOS or uh Community Based organizations communities government um even businesses private sector to some extent on uh tackling an issue in that uh Collective Manner and so one has the knowledge or expertise in gathering information another have the information um and another may be um
Have the the the the the expertise in um providing um uh presenting the information so there’s that collaborative effort and so what we saw that um they were collaborative effort Bonito gave the example of where communities would have gathered data on water quality for instance or or climate related issues then an organization
That’s more focused on policy looked at that data look at that information put it together presented it in such a way that there can be engagement with community on one level and then there can engagement at the policy level to influence what sort of decisions that uh
Is made at a national level or more providing that kind of information to a more um with with the wider public and so the idea was to share the knowledge share the experience and having a plat not a platform a formal platform but a um a mode or mechanism for uh sharing
Learnings um and also sharing expertise so that you can reach a common goal it is not it’s as she said it’s more on the model or the experience that were was gained from that rather than you know like a a an actual structure that exists thanks minita that’s really helpful um
Um we have to consider all of this even if we end up or you guys end up creating something new at least you can build on the lessons that have been generated already as to what works what stakeholders seem to appreciate in terms of how they can participate best
Efficiently and effectively cool so we’ve got a lot of thoughts there to mullon going forward the last thing we want to do before we consume these snacks that Calvin is sharing out um we want to have a quick discussion about sensitization and based on your familiarity with the content that we’ve
Been grappling with for the last day and a half or two um and of course bearing in mind things like the community empowerment initiative you know the whole Observatory discussion that we had earlier today do you have thoughts on how best to begin approaching the sensitization process communities need sensitizing
Maybe there are others that need sensitizing who are those others and how best to begin making that journey of communicating or sharing what we know know or what we have learned with these significant others so the floor is open I’ll throw the ball but not the
Microphone or maybe I can throl the ball and I’ll follow with the mic anybody would like to take the floor sensitization good afternoon um one way I believe that the in for the sensitization process is what we call P um piggy backing with these um C agencies or knowing what the agenda or
The the plan activi is that other agencies like the Ministry of Health as for these communities because one thing they have in common is um malaria right the minister of health does a lot of work on malaria and at the same time we try to implement the agenda
For mercury at the same time so as Mr Wolford and others would have mentioned you know they’re not just going to do one thing and then come out back and then next group go and do again so we go at these Ministries that have a common interest for example health and Mercury
We talking about health so we get what the agenda is and we try to blend it or mix it together because um from one experience in 2016 conducting interviews in araka and 14 miles and um po PL Mountain the whole Northwest is um when you approach the miners
They were like um just last week Somebody went in and talk about the same thing now you coming again now these miners they got work they got things to do the sun is at and everybody out there so they don’t have the time to talk to
You about this again and again so we try to get to know what Ministry of Health is doing what labor is doing what somebody is doing and we try to put it together collaboration again collaboration right can I say something I’m sure he could have mentioned that
The gdma has pushed for and gotten the setting up of a memorandum of cooperation and they’re talking with Ministry of Labor now to do a another memorandum of cooperation so that the people who are coming in must first of all have cleared with their head heads and so on who’s going in what
Are they going to cover and what outcomes are they looking for sorry good afternoon everyone um one of the Outreach programs that has worked for us in the past is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and doing what we call some nighttime Workshop with the miners in that way we don’t
Have to interrupt them working during the day and we met with them in the evening so we were able to speak to them about Mercury talk to them about improved mineral recovery the persons from Ministry of Health who were able to speak to them about HIV AIDS STDs and
Malaria we are also able to share um brochures and so on show videos and also distribute um hammock not H hammock Nets and that kind of stuff so there’s one thing that has worked for us in the past no at the camps mhm like we would
Um get persons from nearby camps to come over here to one come so that’s just one approach coll so yous I think that time we had a better relationship with um Ministry of Health we used to do a lot of I don’t know who um organized it but yeah we had our best
Yeah they were able to distribute condoms and all these things things yeah mhm yeah and also linking it to standing institutions like a ministry right it’s not like a NGO or a project that will be you know gone perhaps in a while perfect thank you very much so
Far I wanted to um touch on the mode of um sensitization sensitization if I could use that um in terms of making sure that we use the right methods uh which whether if we’re meeting with like I was told with miners the easy way of get reaching reaching
Miners is through WhatsApp so don’t try to um you know print out big posters are long long reports but um using Whatsapp uh and not and in WhatsApp message not no long document but I I think it’s important to be sensitive to what’s already produced um whether it’s related
To Mercury or biodiversity or whatever it is um have a way of collaborating no not in terms of going out but what’s already produced what sort of information is already packaged either by video and and so on and ensure that we are utilizing those and not
Creating new ones and then we have um a lot piled up and I say piled up because we even have a lot of ours and people can come and ask and still use in their their their um their sensitization drive so sharing the among those who are involved in the sensitization to share
What they have produced already and then so everyone is building on that and utilizing the same kinds of um utilizing the the the products that are there already it’s it’s important to do that yeah on sensitization I wanted to make a comment about the format and about the format in I can’t
Even about the format in which um the sensitization occurs so in Dr Maurice’s presentation she mentioned they use like comic strips to tell persons about the visual issues that you get from mercury poisoning and I think that is true for Guana as well like some people go with
All these big booklets to the miners and it might be more efficient or more effective to do a cartoon or an animated video or an ad that is fun that is attractive and easy to understand so I think in sensitization we need to know who our Target audiences and be able to
Break down that message in an attractive and effective way rather than these sck booklets I think ggmc also spoke about yesterday they have these boards that are around in certain mining communities to give them information about the different mining claims how deep it is and all of these things but some of
These information go over a lot of person’s head so I think you know you got to really know who you’re targeting and how you package that message in a way that suits your audience also translation is important not everything should be in English you have indigenous communities maybe have read a loud story
Or something like that that is translated in the aayian language I think that is something we need to take note of it’s easier thank you um yeah thank you so that that’s right video and cartoons it’s working pretty well so and it’s so easy to uh to understand to read
And to share even with your kids and so on uh what we were what we plan to uh propose uh for the for this project to uh sensitize good Min neurs and communities is playing we uh we plan to develop like a serious game and we want that people uh
Play with cards with pictures uh to speak between them to discuss between them and uh and and with us of course to try to understand better the complexity of uh of the issue because nothing is simple and it’s quite difficult to explain the complexity so by playing
With pictures um with uh with a game on the table and so on it’s I think it’s uh it’s for easier so we we will try a new form of sensitization uh next week in media and we are also um preparing a big serious game for the
Surinam uh it’s like um it’s a game with several C and the one of the objective is also to propose the people to play different roles for example we can ask your go miner playing the role of an indigenous uh farmer we will ask to the doctor to
Play the role of the mayor and so on so so we we would like to uh to work with the empathy of people may have and to uh to better understand what are the constraints what are the challenges every kind of actors have to uh to
Face so I promise I’m not making it youal bilateral here but game based learning is something that policy form Gan is very big on and that is the organization I’m representing here today so policy firm gen has actually under the SS program developed Sall games one of which is called the river Guardians
That directly links to Mercury and the impacts of it on freshwater species as well as well as the rivers that exist apart from that there’s the EOS snake and lad this Earth help us so is these large games that you play that engage youths as well as University students
Have a better understanding so when you mentioned G I was really passionate about that thought and I think it’s an excellent initiative that we can apply to the mining and Mercury sector because it has worked for General environmental especially with water quality thank you so I think
Oh well you got to collect the ball I think I could catch I’ll make sure I give a glit this time Mr um I just about thinking here we we all drinking from the same picture literally because this is the second time I desire intervention it went that
Way and then she started saying almost exactly what I wanted to say but but there’s there’s one slight difference I I am happy to hear of the examples that are already on the ground where we’re using different ways to communicate the message um I’m particularly interested in the theater element
Because what I assume of the nature of our culture uh and and and and that that might be something that’s really a strong vehicle to use the Arts to Comm unicate the message that’s something that I’ll be looking at in general um environmental work one important thing I
Wanted to um ask about is about studying the effectiveness rather than assumed Effectiveness and I do I wonder to what extent we are studying it we are using a technique and evaluating the efficiency of the technique to accomplish the outcome that we are we are Desir as of a
Company and I think that is something uh from a personal level but I think perhaps even I’m not going to put CCs in the spot they’re just here providing services but I know of the the the uh some of the interest in the work of the communications um uh Center that it
Might be something of interest to be able to uh take an academic approach understanding which is most efficient and and then and in what context that’s one bit and and then the other bit which is just echoing uh what Benita said which is the need for translation into
To the languages I think we have the facilities now to be able to translate we have translators official translators to be able to move things from English into a number of the indigenous languages which makes it applicable in those spaces where uh persons are not really uh conversing on English because
That’s not their thing thank you sir I particularly want to take that that example that we just mentioned because when the lady from policy form spoke I had a sense of what would happen somebody from ggmc will go back to the desk and say this is the
Idea but even if it goes up to the commissioner he will check and say there’s no budget line for this you should have get got this done before September when we were doing our budget and even when you go to the board for a special Arrangement somebody has to justify
It what we need to recognize is that when we have these types of discussions they’re wonderful they’re nice but the head of Department doesn’t show up and the deputy head doesn’t show up and the people who come are interested but they’re not with the greatest respect to them they’re not the decision makers
And we need to find a way to put the heads of Department together and have conversation that you could get action on if I’m wrong ggm she tell me I’m wrong sorry thank you very much if I could be permitted to just add a two cents on
This too um the point about getting the senior leadership to be on board is a really important piece of the puzzle and maybe we can integrate that into the platform or whatever mechanism we are using to to work effectively together um I also want to be a bit of a spoiler
Here because from my experience of years in Civil Society as well as with development programs I know there’s a tendency to forget results and measure results we do a lot of sensitization and education voter education civic education health education and we just pumping stuff out as if pumping it out
Is enough we can’t change but we can’t measure that’s a famous saying and so knowing what baselines are already in place and knowing the impact of the efforts we are making to sensitize educate raise awareness whatever otherwise it’s just money down the drain in a black hole we have no idea what
Kind of effect we’re having I love the board game I love posters I love you know animated videos and but do they work and I think the capacity to measure the effectiveness of those techniques just like we had a discussion about the scientific standardization of methodologies Etc I think is really
Important so that we don’t pretend like we’re making a difference when in fact we’re missing the mark you know volume doesn’t necessarily equate with quantity or quality sorry you know so anyway just to make that point as I have the microphone any last thoughts on sensitization before we move on I want
To check and see if folks online are signaling I haven’t gotten any signals no okay nothing from the online posy anything else from anyone else all right so I guess you’re all ready to go home before I hand it to um we have laurance and Aisha and
Calvin who will give us some closing remarks according to the agenda I guess a few minutes each it’s on the agenda no I didn’t I okay good so it’s really at this point it’s really just my duty to conclude this session thank you all very very much um thanks
For being kind to my friend he really worked hard today um and he didn’t break any glasses I’ll use the opportunity to make one small um announcements perhaps related to my own sort of professional work as a forest governance facilitator for quite a few years now we’ve been working on something called a
Stakeholder engagement guide which boils down our gyes experience in the natural resource sector in terms of Engagement and says these are the best practices we can find of how to do good stakeholder engagement not just an event but a process we’re talking about involving communities for example example we
Talking about involving government how do we achieve that Holy Grail of development practice in terms of participation so this guide is going to be coming out in another few months I would guess we’re moving to print shortly but I’d like to stay in touch with as many of you who are interested
In that kind of work so we can continue to collaborate even after today and of course the documents the guideline and the other tools that come with it will be available electronically uh and potentially in hard copy if you’re at the head of the line so so
Just to make a mention of that I think we have a lot of work to do it’s been a great privilege to work with you this is kind of my first mining Excursion forestry is my usual thing as I said before we’ve been a great crowd to work
With I’ve been honored and it’s been a great pleasure so thank you very much Calvin for having me uh to be a part of the process and thank you all for your participation and encouragement [Applause] so with that I’ll pass the microphone to Dr laurance for her concluding
Remarks well than thank you so first I I’m very grateful for the invitation and for the organization of uh of this today’s uh events um it it was very fruitful and very interesting and uh I was very pleased to listen to the students ex students are presenting their their work it’s really really
Exciting and promising for the University of Guana so uh I was really really happy with that um one point I I would like to uh to add Al is that I think there is a high need of a good analytical laboratory here in the country in Guana and the University of
Guana can maybe offer this opportunity to propose um relable chemical analysis in case of well um sometimes one institution maybe the ministry Ministry of a and so on organize a biom monitoring or environmental monitoring uh on Mercury but also on on other toxic uh uh uh
Elements uh so we are very pleased to participate to the intercalibration and to the certification of uh of this lab of of your lab I think it’s very important because the one of the objective of uh our work in um in your country and in other countries is that
To uh to ensure that everything can be done in the country we don’t want more exporting uh samples and even exporting well exporting knowledge that that that’s okay but uh we import knowledge we import techniques and at the end the objective is that you continue doing
That in the in the the best way so one one first point is U ensuring uh important uh an analytic uh lab here um the the second point I’m also uh well thinking about is um how measuring the impact of uh our project on the ground uh tomorrow in one year in
Five years in 10 years uh Al it’s uh it’s a question a lot of scientists are asking um it’s pretty it’s pretty difficult to uh to well to imagine the future but I I think it’s important to be patient and uh um and also to to think about which kind
Of um indicators can be propos in order to uh evaluate more or L the the impact of of the project so and and I think another important Point here is the discussion that uh we have opened between uh different stakeholders and between the Ministries between ggmc with
Ggmc with GFC and WWF and so on mixing academic actors with uh institutional actors and also Association and uh and uh people from the Civil Society so it’s it’s really important it’s um it the the heart of the transdisciplinary uh science and sustainability science so
It’s a it’s a very good point and it’s a first steps I think of a long collaboration so thank you very much for everybody for everyone for your participation for your active participation and uh and the motivation to to continue your your work thank [Applause]
You and um I I’ll just take two minutes because I might have been speaking all day um I just wanted to touch on the fact that this collaboration with the University of Guyana is an important one that we in in the project saw as valuable but also providing input and
Connecting various stakeholders at the level of of the University not only in gyana but also this project is implemented in Surinam and so we’re doing similarly in Surinam where there’s so much knowledge um teaching um learning uh research that’s happening within our country and and ensuring that
We have the space to present and share what’s done what can be done how it can be improved and so we’re very thankful that we can collaborate with the University of Ghana to do this and um with ird’s um approach as an inst a research institution um and providing that
Partnership to to to host or co-host this event um WWF is really pleased to do this and be a part of this and uh personally I look forward to doing things like this when we can work with students and lecturers and heads of departments at the University to really
See different aspects to training discussion providing a space for presenting work um and building knowledge um personally I I I I I like contributing to that and so I’m grateful that you took part and all the participants that took part from um since yesterday uh that you can really
Give provide um good input and solutions and actions to move forward with we are as I said before we’re in the final year of our our project and even currently we are doing a revision of the work plan going forward towards the end of the project and looking at results that we
We would like to capture and we’re talking to different ones to see what’s necessary what’s urgent within this Final Phase that we can restructure but also bring some important um results and products and not just to say that we did this we did that and this is the original plan this
Is what we’re running with but we are doing a revision now to see what’s possible so this conversation would be helpful I think to help us to identify a few things that that’s um that can either be kickstart started as we end the project or can be produced by the
End of the project so thank you for your input thanks to Calvin personally for running with this all for a few weeks well on different fronts I don’t think we could have gotten this done without him personally being involved and um Lawrence and all the other facilitators
Thank you so much and the presenters I uh my colleagues from WF France for partnering and and being here to be a part of this discussion and also in the field uh thank you for all the other partners for the implementation uh participating in the implementation of
The project like ggmc you didn’t get to hear and on the aspects that we’re doing in the field and we’re partnering on that front and also with the ministry of Natural Resources as we support the minimat working and so many others so thank you very much
Uh so I I wanted to cover maybe two main areas and then second bit in Parts the first bit is just to highlight the uh commitment that we have to the deliverables so uh Lawrence pointed out that we have um we’ve been very transparent very open about what is it
We’re trying to achieve and what is it we intend to put out so the uh tangible uh output from this would be a conference a report that will capture uh synopsis of everything that would have been presented but also the discourse and what we uh kind of we’ve put out as
As possible and and that will be shared with everyone uh that is um that participated and the institutions that participated I think there may be some elements of this that that’s just publicly available uh for consumption um the recordings uh we we have to work
Through the um bit of editing and so on but the recordings will also be available uh for persons to be able to view uh go over again and and and so on so we’ll um work through that uh over the next couple of weeks um and and
So making that real and implementing the ideas uh moving them forward I think is something that I look forward to uh in in all aspects of this so that’s the first thing I want to know the second thing I I say thanks to ird and WWF uh
For working with us uh on on making this uh possible um I made a personal investment in insuring and I I I always reflect back was this worth it and I think I already said somewhere up front in the day that yeah before we even got
To the end there I think it was definitely worth it just the engagement we had yesterday uh said it was it was worth the effort uh put in to make this happen um I didn’t do with absolutely alone uh we had some uh significant support uh within the faculty uh I I
Stole the dean PA for a bit so Miss Crystal Stevens across there uh has been providing some admistrative support um I introduced the rapporteurs which we called up a little while ago uh so um Washington uh Mr Rover and Miss Fredericks uh yes yesterday more well the day before yesterday when I
Recognized that we had some things that were kind of putting us in a crunch spot and we may need some help early in the morning I kind of went home and said uh what are you doing tomorrow my good daughter and she like what is it and I
Asked for her help and she came out and she spent yesterday and then she got up early this morning like are you coming back today she said yes so I guess there’s something in there that’s been sparking for her she’s a second year student so thanks kist
Um yes uh the so the team effort here at chem turn uh you know we chem has been all this beautiful stuff that you’ll see up here branding this conference is is Kem turn’s work everything on your folder uh the badge everything Kem turn did a phenomenal job sort of turning out these
Things I would say that in in so far as there’s breath in my lungs and uh there’s space in my schedule I will I will commit fully to us moving these ideas forward thank you all for coming out and supporting those that have been here all day yesterday and today and uh
Those that joined us today um thank you all very much for participating in this the persons online also I know there are some people that were out there um but I’m going to highlight Troy again just because uh I called Troy this morning uh on an idea that him and I were talking
About to ensure that he was on the discussion and then he told me yeah I was in there yday yesterday too so thanks to all those that have been online and and being part of the conversation too thank you all and we there’s some snacks
There uh please don’t let it go to waste there’s some juice uh fill up and um yes thank you again have a good rest of the [Applause] evening country