2013-2020

FROM GOLD MINING TO COCOA FARMING

2013-2020

TERRE DES HOMMES SUISSE

Terre des Hommes Suisse is part of the Terre des Hommes movement. The Suisse branch works in 10 countries to ensure children have access to quality education, are protected from all forms of violence and are empowered to participate fully in decisions affecting their future. In Peru, where the organisation is committed to protecting children from trafficking and exploitation, we funded a unique livelihood programme aimed at creating sustainable alternatives to gold mining.

www.terredeshommessuisse.ch

CHALLENGE

In the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios in southern Peru, over 50% of the population makes a living from informal gold mining. Intensive panning to extract gold has dramatic consequences on the environment, such as deforestation, and mercury and cyanide poisoning of soils and rivers. Sexual and labour exploitation of young people are the norm in these migrant miner communities.

ACTION

Since 2013, Terre des Hommes Suisse has been supporting artisanal and small-scale mining communities in Madre de Dios to improve their gold extraction practices and diversify their sources of income.

Fieldworkers from the Edana anthropo-technological research laboratory at the Haute Ecole Arc Ingénierie University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland engaged with miners to design solutions to improve extraction practices. Two prototypes were developed and locally produced. Over 600 people in three mining communities benefitted directly from these improved industry-recognised techniques.

Terre des Hommes teams supported 72 families to abandon gold prospecting and establish a cocoa farming cooperative called Agrobosque. Terre des Hommes helped Agrobosque to strengthen cocoa production and sales, access micro-credits, diversify incomes and diets, and secure new market opportunities. In 2019, Agrobosque gained Fairtrade certification.

IMPACT

FAMILIES ABANDONED GOLD PROSPECTING PRACTICES

to establish the cocoa farming cooperative Agrobosque

75,700

TONS OF COCOA

produced between 2017 and 2020

250

HECTARES OF AGROBOSQUE LAND

gained organic certification