Over-spilling institutions: the political ecology of ‘greening’ the small-scale gold mining sector in Guyana

This article applies a political ecology framework to examine the challenges of ‘greening’ Guyana’s relatively established small-scale gold mining sector. Based on a year of fieldwork conducted in Guyana’s gold mining landscape, the article highlights a range of ways in which the supposed stability and transparency of Guyana’s institutional mining framework is undermined by the dynamic and discretionary realities of actual small-scale gold mining activity. The tendency of mining activity to overspill institutional boundaries is contributing to worsening ecological conditions in the country’s interior. For miners, it is shown that, even having acquired or accessed formal property, they face various challenges (such as minimal state support, stressed conditions of production, and tenure insecurity) that compromise their ability to enact ‘green’ mining. The state meanwhile faces related challenges in ensuring that dynamic and fluid mining activity remains within its legal and literal boundaries. Overall, the article illustrates how the mainstream green mining ‘storyline’ – based on the notion of formal institutions as a disciplining or containing force – is disrupted by an intimate interaction among unruly socio-ecological realities.