Abstract Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) provides a source of livelihood for millions of mostly poor people across the globe. At the same time, however, the sector is predominantly informal and associated with a range of persistent social and environmental challenges, including chronic poverty, deforestation, land degradation, mercury pollution and river siltation. The ASM sector is connected to all the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ways which both support and undermine their achievement. Attention, therefore, is growing on how the sector can shape, and be shaped by, the pursuit of the SDGs. This paper aims to articulate the linkages and interactions between ASM and the SDGs to inform ongoing debates about how to address the sector’s social and environmental impacts. The review engages with three key, and closely related, issues that are central to determining the potential for synergies to emerge between ASM and the SDGs. These are: 1) the large-scale bias in mining policy; 2) debates around formalisation; and 3) knowledge. It is argued that the SDGs, their 169 targets and 232 indicators, and the state and corporate driven processes behind their development serve to exacerbate the large-scale bias; promote an approach to formalisation that risks marginalising the poorest and entrenching inequality, and; privilege techno-scientific knowledge at the expense of studies which examine the governance systems that actually dictate who, where, how and why people engage with ASM, knowledge that is essential for effective policy design. The review concludes that the prospects for the SDGs contributing positively to efforts to address environmental and social issues in ASM are poor. Worryingly, similar arguments apply across a range of important sectors, such as forestry and agriculture, where informality and poverty are also widespread. Raising the prospects for the SDGs requires focussing less on measuring whether or not particular indicators are met but rather on understanding what such goal-setting governance systems actually do with respect to the lives of their intended beneficiaries and the environments they inhabit. Such an understanding can inform strategies to resist the more pernicious effects of ostensibly unobjectionable global sustainability agendas.

中文翻译：

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可持续发展目标如何有可能破坏小规模采矿业解决环境和社会问题的努力

摘要 手工和小规模采矿 (ASM) 为全球数以百万计的贫困人口提供了生计来源。然而，与此同时，该部门主要是非正规部门，并与一系列持续存在的社会和环境挑战相关，包括长期贫困、森林砍伐、土地​​退化、汞污染和河流淤积。ASM 部门与所有联合国可持续发展目标 (SDG) 相关联，支持和破坏这些目标的实现。因此，人们越来越关注该行业如何塑造并受其对可持续发展目标的追求。本文旨在阐明手工和小规模采矿与可持续发展目标之间的联系和相互作用，为正在进行的关于如何解决该行业的社会和环境影响的辩论提供信息。审查涉及三个关键，以及密切相关的问题，这些问题对于确定手工和小规模采矿与可持续发展目标之间出现协同作用的潜力至关重要。它们是：1）采矿政策的大规模偏差；2) 关于形式化的辩论；3）知识。有人认为，可持续发展目标、其 169 项具体目标和 232 项指标以及其发展背后的国家和企业驱动过程加剧了大规模偏差；促进正规化方法，这可能会使最贫困者边缘化和根深蒂固的不平等，以及；优先考虑技术科学知识，而牺牲了研究治理系统的研究，这些系统实际上决定了人们参与 ASM 的人员、地点、方式和原因，这些知识对于有效的政策设计至关重要。审查得出的结论是，可持续发展目标对解决手工和小规模采矿中的环境和社会问题的努力做出积极贡献的前景不佳。令人担忧的是，类似的论点也适用于林业和农业等一系列重要部门，这些部门的非正规性和贫困现象也很普遍。提高可持续发展目标的前景需要较少关注衡量是否满足特定指标，而是了解此类设定目标的治理系统实际上对预期受益者的生活和他们居住的环境做了什么。这种理解可以为抵御表面上无可争议的全球可持续发展议程的更有害影响的战略提供信息。例如林业和农业，那里的非正规和贫困也很普遍。提高可持续发展目标的前景需要较少关注衡量是否满足特定指标，而是了解此类设定目标的治理系统实际上对预期受益者的生活和他们居住的环境做了什么。这种理解可以为抵御表面上无可争议的全球可持续发展议程的更有害影响的战略提供信息。例如林业和农业，那里的非正规和贫困也很普遍。提高可持续发展目标的前景需要较少关注衡量是否满足特定指标，而是了解此类设定目标的治理系统实际上对预期受益者的生活和他们居住的环境做了什么。这种理解可以为抵御表面上无可争议的全球可持续发展议程的更有害影响的战略提供信息。提高可持续发展目标的前景需要较少关注衡量是否满足特定指标，而是了解此类设定目标的治理系统实际上对预期受益者的生活和他们居住的环境做了什么。这种理解可以为抵御表面上无可争议的全球可持续发展议程的更有害影响的战略提供信息。提高可持续发展目标的前景需要较少关注衡量是否满足特定指标，而是了解此类设定目标的治理系统实际上对预期受益者的生活和他们居住的环境做了什么。这种理解可以为抵御表面上无可争议的全球可持续发展议程的更有害影响的战略提供信息。