The Amazon Gold Alliance (AGA) is a global collaborative network transforming the gold value chain to stop Amazon destruction.
About The AGA
A Systemic Approach
to A Hidden Crisis
The Amazon Basin, one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks and biodiversity reservoirs, is at its tipping point. Gold mining releases massive amounts of carbon and severely degrades land and water.
The region’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities suffer widespread health crises from mercury poisoning, food and water insecurity, illegal encroachment on their territories, human rights abuses including trafficking and violence, and rising insecurity linked to criminal networks.
A Systemic Approach
to A Hidden Crisis
Despite widespread recognition of the problem, responses remain fragmented and siloed. The result is duplication, inefficiency, and under-addressed intervention points, and ultimately, the unchecked proliferation of this damaging practice.
A Systemic Approach
to A Hidden Crisis
The Amazon Gold Alliance works collaboratively to transform the system that results in illicit and informal gold mining in the Amazon. The collective goal is to shift away from environmentally and socially harmful practices toward a value chain that ensures human dignity alongside the protection and regeneration of nature.
A Systemic Approach
to A Hidden Crisis
In our pursuit of systemic solutions, engaging people from across the gold value chain means holistically addressing the drivers of gold mining in the Amazon including illicit activities and financial crime led by violent and coercive organized criminals.
About
Launched in 2024, the Amazon Gold Alliance is a collaborative innovation network comprising 90+ members from 17 countries.
About
Through deep collaboration AGA members are learning about each other’s work and goals. This is fostering essential coordinated research and action alignment around critical shifts needed in the system.
About
The AGA takes a systemic approach to the complex challenges of the gold value chain in the Amazon.
By intentionally linking local action to regional and global strategies, we work to identify leverage points and develop integrated, long-term solutions.
We seek to create a future where the Amazon is preserved, livelihoods are protected, and people are not forced to choose between survival and environmental destruction.
Discover The Team
What We Do
The Amazon Gold Alliance, a global network from across the gold value chain, is committed to activating long-term systems change to counter illicit and informal gold mining.
What We Do
We bring together leaders from Indigenous communities, civil society organizations, government, academia, industry, and other subject matter experts from across the whole gold value chain to address the social, environmental, and economic impacts of gold mining in the Amazon.
What We Do
We welcome collaboration with individuals, organizations and professionals who are committed to changing the gold value chain in the Amazon in ways that protect people, forests and biodiversity.
Together, we promote more responsible practices, enhanced traceability, due diligence and transparency to deliver solutions with integrity.
The Team
Christina T. Miller
Katherin Alfonso
Nina Bessa
Rachael McGowen
Sarah duPont
Jessie Nagel
Cecilia Echeverri
Ana Sofía Betancourt
How We Do It:
The Methodology
Coordinated for Impact,
Designed for Scale
With systems-level commitment to collaborative innovation we can build a new system that supports transparency, accountability, and responsible alternatives from the ground to the consumer.
How We Do It:
The Methodology
What is Collaborative Innovation?
- A Values-Based Approach to helping people who don’t know each other and often don’t like each other solve complex problems together.
- A Pragmatic Process with phases and steps to help guide our network’s work toward systemic change.
- A Set of Practical Tools and Methods that help establish genuine safety, trust, and engagement.
- A Set of Dynamic Patterns to monitor and manage to ensure success.
- A Fundamental Belief that people can and will solve big problems when they have effective processes, tools, methods and support.
How We Do It:
The Methodology
Our theory of change is grounded in the belief that transforming the Amazon gold supply chain requires fostering collaboration across all sectors. Ensuring efforts are not siloed or duplicative and reach the most remote and vulnerable communities and ecosystems, we can accelerate progress and more effectively reduce the environmental and social harms
How We Do It:
The Methodology
Amazon Aid, the nonprofit organization providing facilitation and convening support to the AGA, has partnered with CoCreative, a global leader in systems-change strategy. This partnership ensures that AGA is a structured engine for durable, transformative change.
To find out more about Amazon Aid visit Amazonaid.org
To learn about CoCreative and its projects, visit wearecocreative.com
Until there are more sustainable livelihoods, gold mining is likely to continue in the Amazon, as it provides a valuable source of income in a region with limited sustainable economic opportunities.
Private Members Area
This is a private, member-only page that serves as the information hub for the AGA.
Contact Us
The Amazon Gold Alliance is facilitated by Amazon Aid, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more: AmazonAid.org
This is a private, member-only page but we encourage you to reach out to the team with any questions, please email amazongold@amazonaid.org or fill out this form.