Introduction: In early August, Mr. Mnzava posted a comment on the Madison Dialogue List Serve: “Foreign gemstones dealers notably from USA and Europe, Far East undermine miners and governments in Africa.” His post was in response to Jim Fiebig’s work in Madagascar. Jim responds in subsequent posts. This post is the second in a series

Introduction: Jim Fiebig (www.sellmorecolor.com) has been a passionate advocate for the artisanal mining sector for many years. Here, he describes the current situation in Madagascar, and his work in that country. This post first appeared on the Madison Dialogue list serve, which elicited a response from Mohamed Mnzava, who questioned his work. Jim then responds

Introduction: The Association of Responsible Mining (ARM) http://www.communitymining.org/qseng.htm is at the fore front creating a fair trade platform that would bring great economic benefit for small scale artisanal miners around the world. In this post, by Christina Echavarria, the Secretary General of ARM, reports on a conference that took place in Peru a few months