Background: The study was conducted among Maroons, forest people of African descent. Traditionally, Maroons have practiced subsistence-level horticulture, hunting, and gathering in addition to migratory wage labor and some mining (see above). Since the early 1980s, large numbers of Maroons have become small-scale gold miners. Economic isolation of Suriname's interior during a recent civil war (1986-1992); serious economic recession accompanied by hyperinflation, shortages of foreign currency, and a lack of employment opportunities, have contributed to the increased importance of small scale gold mining in the household economy of Suriname Maroons. Our initial observations suggest that French Guiana Maroon households rely to a lesser extend on gold mining for a living.

1. Because French citizens are, on average, wealthier than Suriname citizens, French Maroons will be more likely to become mine operators and less likely to become mine laborers.

2. Within any one nation, the poorest people with the least access to social security payments (e.g. public health care, unemployment benefits) will be most likely to become mine laborers to compensate for temporary deductions in household income due to disability, illness, involuntary unemployment, or other misfortunes.

The anticipated results will help us understand if improved access to socioeconomic resources (i.e. money, health care, education) affects participation in small-scale gold mining, and how reliance on small-scale gold mining affects the wealth and health of household and village members in rural Latin America.

Research site: A team of four research assistants conducted a total number of 425 household interviews in six Maroon villages in Suriname and French Guiana. The inhabitants of these villages have unequal access to social welfare and other government services. Suriname is a poor country that has experienced political and economic instability since it became independent of the Netherlands in 1975. French Guiana is an overseas department or province of France. Its citizens receive salaries, health care, and welfare payments at European levels. For example, the French Guiana government pays a household with three children several hundred Euros per month in child benefits, compared with less than 1 Euro in Suriname. France guarantees a single person without income more than 300 Euros in welfare payments each month. The same person would receive about US$13/month in Suriname. There are no reliable data on the number of Maroon gold miners in either country.