Assessment of the Environmental and Social Dimensions of Gold Mining Expansion in Zamfara State Using a Social-Ecological Systems Framework

The rapid expansion of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Zamfara State represents one of Nigeria's most acute social-ecological management challenges, combining catastrophic environmental contamination with governance failures that have cost thousands of children's lives through lead poisoning. This study applies a social-ecological systems framework to assess the interacting environmental and social dimensions of gold mining expansion in Zamfara State, with the aim of identifying systemic intervention points. Primary data collection combined environmental sampling at 25 sites across the Anka-Maru mining belt, health outcome surveys with 180 households in affected communities, and institutional analysis interviews with 22 actors across federal and state regulatory agencies, mining associations, and health authorities. The social-ecological systems analysis identifies critical mismatches between governance arrangements and the ecological dynamics of artisanal mining expansion, particularly the absence of adaptive co-management mechanisms that can respond to rapid spatial shifts in mining activity. Environmental results confirm persistent severe lead contamination across the study area, with blood lead levels in children exceeding intervention thresholds in all sampled communities. Social analysis reveals that economic benefits of mining are captured predominantly by external buyers and equipment owners rather than community residents, undermining social licence considerations. The study contributes the first systematic social-ecological systems application to Nigerian artisanal mining governance and derives six systemic leverage points for intervention at governance, livelihood, and ecological remediation dimensions. Keywords: social-ecological systems, artisanal mining, Zamfara State, lead contamination, governance.