Claudia Vega

And also, like, one of the things that usually happen that researchers from other places just come to the place that has the problem, they diagnose, and then they go away, right?

We need to have local capacity in the places where the problems are happening because we need to empower the people in the place because at the end, they are the ones that are suffering the consequences.

So I think producing the information, know how to produce the information, that's also empower people in the local community and make change.

So I think it,

It has changed the conversation a lot.

Like when I started, people kind of knew a little bit of Mercury, but right now we have more information and people are talking about it.

Like just two months ago, we released the results of a study in the north part of the Peruvian Amazon.

And we have been in the news like for one and a half months.

I mean, like people want to know about it.

If people don't know what is happening, they cannot look for a solution.

So having the information is,

It's really important.

And there's a convention for reducing mercury in the world, the Minamata Convention.

Like our data is the first data that they have from places that have artisanal gold mines.

Because they usually don't have that data because it's hard to do the work in those places.

So we're showing results locally, national and international.

I think that can produce change.

Knowing that information and seeing that information can make changes.

Like, for example, when I go with the communities or the indigenous people, like when I explain to them, like,

where the mercury is, how it concentrates, like how there are safer fishes and there are ones that are more risky to eat.