Environmental health impacts of small-scale gold mining in East Indonesia: Mercury pollution and nature conservation

Abstract

The expansion of small-scale gold mining impacts environmental health and socio-economic. Research in Bombana District, one of the gold mining centers in eastern Indonesia, was conducted to explore perceptions of the impact of small-scale gold mining on human health and attitudes towards environmental conservation activities related to smallscale gold mining activities. This research uses a quantitative approach with univariate tests to identify respondent characteristics, bivariate tests (Chi-square) to test relationships and frequency differences, and multivariate analysis (regression) to test the direction and magnitude of the relationship. The perception of the impact of small-scale gold mining on human health was not significantly related (p=0.576) to community participation in environmental conservation activities. Attitude variables related to nature conservation are partially significantly related to community participation in environmental conservation activities (p=0.001). Respondents with a poor attitude regarding environmental conservation activities are 17.1 times more likely to not participate in environmental conservation activities than respondents with a good attitude. Although mining activities benefit several sectors, it is undeniably detrimental to the environmental health sector, where one of the critical impacts is the mercury content in the soil and water in the environment around mining. Therefore, local people should take advantage of locally-based nature conservation.