Resilience Capability of Indigenous People Affected by Small-Scale Gold Mining Activities: A Prevention Approach

Abstract

This research addresses three main review points related to the harmful practices of artisanal and small-scale gold mining and the appropriateness of prevention approaches to resilience for local residents’ environments. First, the focus is on cases of illegal mining exploitation in North Rarowatu and Lantari Jaya, with emphasis on the aspects of disaster risk management and prevention approaches in construction areas. Second, focus is given to the abundance of gold grains in the mining area, which attracts the author to utilize a dynamic system approach to explore whether a progressive restructuring exists for avoiding casualties in the mining area. Third, the precautionary accuracy of the security forces and the government are given focus to emphasize the prohibition of mercury absorption as a mining method. This research utilizes a system dynamics methodology to investigate the review of preventive approaches for maintaining the resilience of local communities and the determinants of small-scale gold mining activities by considering other empirical testing models. This study finds that a 30–50% increase in gold production significantly results in hydrological pollution due to mercury content, increased worker deaths, and unending damage to resident ecosystems, with minimal preventive capabilities in the pre-illegal artisanal and small-scale gold mining period. Moreover, this study offers an input and output prevention approach to controlling the number of illegal gold miners while protecting the environmental resilience of local residents.