Working with legal small-scale miners: Implications for development

Development initiatives focused on illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) typically assume that formalisation will address environmental degradation and poverty. But there is little research on legal small-scale miners' (SSMs) perceptions of their environmental impacts, or on demographic characteristics that should inform development programmes. Based on a survey of 137 legal SSMs, this study analysed the perceptions and practices of legal SSMs within the context of an accountability, rule of law and anti-corruption programme, with an environmental governance subtheme, in Ghana. Data suggest that formalisation may not be a panacea for improving environmental governance, findings with policy and practical implications for development programmes.