| Summary: | Artisanal gold mining (AGM) plays an important role in the economic development of Burkina Faso with over 2 million people directly or indirectly engaged in the activity in over 800 sites. This study explores the emergence of AGM and its environmental, social, and economic impacts in the Hounde district of Burkina Faso. A supervised spectral angle mapper classification algorithm in QGIS along with visual interpretation was used to classify images into Land Use Land Cover (LULC) categories to identify the environmental impacts of AGM. The socio-economic impacts of AGM were assessed using semi-structured questionnaires and interviews to identify the perceived impacts of the emergence of AGM in the study area. The results revealed a massive decrease in forest and sparse area of about 18% and 32% respectively from 1990 to 2020, with AGM emerging between 2010 and 2020. LULC analysis also reveals bare land and settlements increased drastically with the emergence of AGM. In terms of social impacts, AGM has no statistically significant impact on land conflicts and cost of living (p-value > 0.05) but a significant impact on current employment status (p-value = 0.00) and social vices like alcoholism (p-value < 0.02) and current school dropouts. The economic impact of AGM on local businesses is also statistically significant (p-value = 0.006) but the chi-square reveals that over 50% of respondents earn less than 1 dollar per day. So, while AGM has proved to be helping to alleviate poverty (SDG1), it compromises the quality of education (SDG4) and the quality of life on land (SDG15) through vegetation reduction. We, therefore, recommend that the policymakers in Burkina Faso oversee mining in the Houde district to adhere to environmental protection guidelines while using revenue generated to improve the quality of life and education in line with SDG15, SDG1, and SDG4 respectively.
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