A court in the French overseas department of Guiana has thrown out a complaint accusing the French state of failing to tackle illegal gold mining, ruling that the authorities were not culpably negligent given the resources deployed.
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The case was filed in January 2024 by six environmental groups and two local residents of Taluen, an Amerindian village in the south of the territory.
It argued that the authorities had not done enough to prevent environmental damage, protect the health of local communities or put a stop to the activities of illegal prospectors.
The claimants also sought recognition of ecological harm and called for the Maroni river – which has been polluted for three decades by the effects of illicit gold extraction – to be granted legal personhood.
Mercury has been banned in French Guiana since 2006 but is still widely used by illegal prospectors.
“Our children are deaf and mute and suffer physical and intellectual development delays,” Michel Aloïke, the Wayana chief of Taluen and one of the claimants, told the court in the capital Cayenne.
The administrative tribunal rejected the claim on Thursday, finding that the state had an obligation to deploy adequate means rather than guarantee results.
It ruled that the state had deployed human, material and financial resources, including in cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries.
Around 280 gendarmes and soldiers are mobilised daily and more than 1,000 patrols are carried out each year under Operation Harpie – a security operation launched in 2008 with an annual budget of €70 million.
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While the court acknowledged that certain communities had suffered cultural and ecological harm, referring to the Maroni river judges ruled that they lacked the authority to confer legal status on a new category of entity, saying the matter fell within the remit of the legislature, rather than the courts.
Wild Legal, one of the claimants, said it was weighing up whether to appeal. Its president, Marine Calmet, disputed the court’s reasoning, arguing that legal personhood under civil law was not in fact required.
“Other legal precedents around the world – notably in Colombia – have clearly shown that it is not at all necessary for a judge or for legislation to recognise a separate civil personality,” she told French news agency AFP.
In 2025, the authorities recorded nearly 600 illegal mining sites in French Guiana, worked by around 8,000 unlicensed prospectors.
Gold mining in the South American territory destroys an estimated 150 hectares of forest and 100 kilometres of waterways every year. Since 2003, more than 3,600km of rivers have been damaged – according to a parliamentary report published in November.
(with AFP)
