Supporting National Action Plans for the Minamata Convention on Mercury

According to the Minamata Convention, countries must take steps to reduce, and where feasible eliminate, the use of mercury and mercury compounds in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). This includes the emissions and releases to the environment of mercury from ASGM. MapX was deployed to support countries that are developing ASGM National Action Plans to meet their obligations under the Minamata Convention and help contribute to the global efforts to reduce mercury use and emissions. Follow the story below or in the story map created in the MapX story map tool.

Back

Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining

The Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted on October 10th 2013 to address the effects and risks that mercury poses to human health and the environment. The Convention requires the development and implementation of National Action Plans (NAPs) specific to the Artisinal and Small-scale Gold Mining (AGSM) sector.

Each NAP must include baseline information on mercury use and practices employed at ASGM sites. Consequently, this information will assist with setting mercury reduction targets and the strategies including steps to formalize or regulate the sector, measures to reduce mercury use, and measures to protect human health and prevent the exposure of vulnerable populations. A diverse range of indicators is therefore relevant to policy making and progress monitoring of mercury reduction targets.

Indicators can include the location of gold mining sites, mining licences and type of deposit, processing techniques at site level, gold production figures and demographics of miners, location of streams, and mercury trade flows.

Given the nature of artisanal and small scale gold mining, the vast majority of relevant data sets are geospatial.

For this purpose, MapX was deployed to assist in spatial information management.

MapX Support

Effectively managing this wealth of information, sharing it among government agencies and monitoring the effectiveness of mercury reduction strategies can be a challenge for implementing countries.

As part of UNEP’s assistance to the countries developing National Action Plans, MapX has developed customized dashboards to support developing countries in managing information related to mercury use and reduction in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector.

After launching the customized NAP dashboard in September 2017 at the first Conference of the Parties in Geneva, MapX is now available for implementation at the country level. In addition to supporting information management by populating the dashboards with national datasets, MapX has developed specific dashboards, contextualized datasets and support data storytelling.

Minamata Convention Dashboard: Country Level

Click any country to view the current status of signatories and future participants.

Project Profile

Clients

UNEP and member states developing National Action Plans under the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Scope

Global and national

Status

Launch of the global Minamata dashboard in September 2017. Country level implementation in 2018 and 2019.

Explore More

Geospatial data catalog for the Minamata project

Story Map

Minamata Convention