Data-driven remote governance of sparsely populated areas: measurement and commensuration of wildcat gold mining in French Guiana Matthieu Noucher, François-Michel Le Tourneau, Pierre Gautreau To cite this version: Matthieu Noucher, François-Michel Le Tourneau, Pierre Gautreau. Data-driven remote governance of sparsely populated areas: measurement and commensuration of wildcat gold mining in French Guiana. GeoJournal, Springer Verlag, In press, 10.1007/s10708-021-10486-3. halshs-03331035 HAL Id: halshs-03331035 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03331035 Submitted on 1 Sep 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License GeoJournal https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10486-3 (0123456789().,-volV)( 0123456789().,-volV) Data-driven remote governance of sparsely populated areas: measurement and commensuration of wildcat gold mining in French Guiana Matthieu Noucher . Franc¸ois-Michel Le Tourneau . Pierre Gautreau Accepted: 30 July 2021 Ó The Author(s) 2021 Abstract The increase in the price of gold, due to a commensuration and its diffusion. This focus on shift to safe investments during the global economic ‘‘measurement-commensuration-diffusion’’ allows us crisis, has led to a rapid expansion of gold production. to identify three key phases in the production of nature Alongside legal gold mines, wildcat gold mining has statistics. We argue that the critical analysis of developed in French Guiana since the early 2000s. metrological processes through this three-step frame- This phenomenon, with its social, environmental and work reveals methodological controversies that reflect economic consequences, is at the heart of the different and even divergent political visions. The environmental governance of this territory. However, article also shows that metrological systems for its difficult quantification is the subject of multiple environmental protection are the focus of targeted controversies. Environmental governance is increas- political disputes. It reports on the current disagree- ingly dependent on metrological regimes aimed at ments—not only between the State and NGOs but also quantifying political action in order to objectify it. within the State itself—on the proposed solutions for This article examines the role of metrology in fighting the impacts of wildcat gold mining in French implementing environmental policies in sparsely Guiana and the broader issues of data production in populated regions via the example of wildcat gold Amazonia. mining in French Guiana. Based on the study of two observatories, one managed by public authorities, the Keywords Metrology Á Sparsely populated areas Á other by an NGO, we deconstruct their maps and Wildcat gold mining Á Critical data studies Á Amazonia counter-maps of wildcat gold mining. To do so, we make a distinction between measurement, Introduction M. Noucher (&) Lab. PASSAGES, CNRS, Bordeaux, France Environmental governance is increasingly dependent e-mail: [email protected] on metrology, which aim to objectify, compare and F.-M. Le Tourneau prescribe political action through the production of Lab. iGLOBES, CNRS, Tucson, AZ, USA statistical and mapping platforms, and various types of e-mail: [email protected] observatories. The importance of metrology is not specific to the environmental field, but it manifests P. Gautreau Universite´ Paris 1 Panthe´on Sorbonne, Paris, France itself in a wide variety of ways: the generalization of e-mail: [email protected] 123 GeoJournal environmental impact assessment practices; the steer- second section presents two observatories focusing ing of territorial policies through the production of on WGM in French Guiana and presented as tools indicators; the evaluation and comparison of environ- allowing a greater efficiency in the repression of this mental management practices; the rise of standards illegal activity, one run by public authorities and the through certification, etc. (Mol, 2009). Thus, increas- other by an NGO. The third section examines the ingly, metrological processes play a central role in commensuration processes used in each of these two responding to the challenges of regulating the envi- instruments. Finally, the last section analyzes the ronment with data. In sparsely populated areas (SPA), dissemination of information and the resulting ten- which are characterized by low population density, sions it has created in each case. In opposition to difficult access, and incomplete and remotely imple- defenders of assessments and other environmental mented state control (Le Tourneau, 2020a), these audits, who maintain that measurements serve the regimes and processes serve as powerful policy purpose of objectifying political differences (Colen & instruments for justifying and legitimizing public Nicholson, 2014; Walpole et al., 2016), this article action. In this context, our paper examines the role demonstrates that metrological systems related to of metrology in the repression of wildcat gold mining environmental protection are subject to targeted (WGM), a serious environmental problem affecting political disputes. French Guiana. The question of WGM represents a great deal (environmentally, socially, economically, politically and technically speaking) and yet, no Governing remotely with figures and maps: common and shared vision and quantification of this the metrological challenges of sparsely populated phenomenon are accepted to this day. Indicators areas attempt to objectify and give visibility to this clandestine activity that takes place in the heart of Information has become an essential component in the the tropical forest. They are produced by actors with development and monitoring of environmental poli- different political objectives. Deconstructing the con- cies (Esty, 2004). In SPA, various forms of environ- ditions of their production and exploitation allows us mental regulation are implemented remotely, in which to reveal these differences. environmental data (statistics, maps) plays a promi- Often, the construction of a social and political nent role. regime requires a shared measurement system. Cate- gories and coding procedures are then established to Regulating the environment with data: produce ‘‘equivalence classes’’ (Desrosie`res, 1998). metrological challenges These processes fall within the realm of ‘‘metrology’’. Producing and circulating tools of spatial metrology In order to make social and spatial diversity more then involves negotiations, adjustments and repairs intelligible, or ‘‘legible’’ as defined by Scott (1998), carried out by those seeking to establish a common modern state institutions began categorizing the measurement. We will examine such a process from populations and territories under their responsibility the perspective of the sociology of quantification as early as the eighteenth century. Quantification applied to administration and the modern state (Diaz- practices then became widespread due to increased Bone & Didier, 2016). To do so, we will differentiate computer efficiency and the neo-liberal policies of the measurement, commensuration and the imposition of 1980s. Barometers, indices, benchmarks, and rankings the chosen metric, as three key phases in the produc- began to be used to compare and prioritize all forms of tion of maps and statistics. Measurement as data activities, and statistics became increasingly essential capture, commensuration as its categorization, and among ‘‘government techniques’’, while the quantita- diffusion as its strategic dissemination offer a three- tive assessment of public policies became system- step framework whose operational and heuristic atized (Lascoumes & Le Galle`s, 2004). The digital potential we test. revolution accelerated the spread of metrology tech- The first section of the paper provides the theoret- niques, which paved the way for the ‘‘digitization of ical basis, presenting concepts of metrology, com- politics’’ (Rose, 1991), ‘‘the politics of numbers’’ mensuration and the characteristics of SPA. The (Alonso & Star, 1989) and the full belief in 123 GeoJournal ‘‘documentary intelligence’’ (Currie, 2020) to manage Measurement and commensuration form the basis populations and resources. of ‘‘metrological systems’’ (Cooper, 2015) used in the This movement gave rise to environmental policies remote governance of sparsely populated areas. As based largely on numerical indicators aimed at developed by Scott (1998), these metrological pro- converting natural objects into statistics or maps for cesses are in general of no interest for resident ‘‘management’’ purposes (Rumpala, 2003). Luke populations, since their primary purpose is to make (1999) used the term ‘‘eco-managerialism’’ to define the regions and resources visible to outside stakehold- the already prevalent regime of natural resource ers. Such processes are supplemented by dissemina- management combining measurement technologies tion strategies aimed at imposing the results in the and