Claudia Vega

We call it champion.

I think there are some people that are trying to do it.

But one of the things that they say a lot is sometimes it's easier and cheaper to be illegal than legal.

I mean, you don't have a government system that encourages to be legal, to be honest.

Because, I mean, if you're legal, you have to pay taxes.

You have to do a lot of things for the workers and everything.

And you sell the gold and it's the same price as the one that is produced in an illegal way.

So it's kind of difficult.

But there are people that are trying to do the right thing.

And one of the things that we try to do is like find these people and make them talk to each other.

Because sometimes you just come from outside.

I mean, I can talk, but I'm not the one that is in the mine.

If another miner come and talk to them,

and share the experience, I think that can do more change.

I think there are different parts of the chain that need to be addressed, like the producers, which are the miners, the ones that receive the gold that will be like the gold trade, like they should be certified that the gold is produced in a legal way, right?

There are some initiatives that are trying to have this certification, but it's still going slow.

And then we have the final consumer.

The gold is produced here in the Amazon, but it's not consumed here.

We know a lot of the gold goes through Switzerland to other places.

we should be asking where the gold was produced, how it was produced.