Instituto Prístino, Rua Santa Maria Goretti, 86, Barreiro, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, CEP 30642-020, Brazil.
Ambio. 2020 Oct;49(10):1629-1638. doi: 10.1007/s13280-020-01326-8. Epub 2020 Mar 16.
Irreversible losses of natural areas and damage to ecosystem services are caused by large-scale mining. These effects are prominent in Minas Gerais, which is home to a mining industry with hundreds of tailings dams concentrated in global hotspots: the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest. We present an overview of the spatial overlap between protected areas (PAs), priority conservation areas (PCAs), tailings dams, and their influence areas. A total of 218 dams accumulated environmental costs and liability that are represented by 2.24 thousand million m of tailings and industrial waste. Most dams (≈ 70%) are located in PCAs, 45 dams in conservation units, 58 in their respective buffer zones, and 51 in special protection areas. We have identified an urgent need to implement adequate public policies to establish management and monitoring mechanisms in PAs and PCAs and to address a scenario of high potential for socioenvironmental damage associated with tailings dams.
大型采矿活动导致自然区域的不可逆转损失和生态系统服务的破坏。这种影响在米纳斯吉拉斯州尤为明显，该州拥有数百家尾矿坝，集中在全球热点地区：塞拉多和大西洋森林。我们概述了保护区 (PA)、优先保护地区 (PCA)、尾矿坝及其影响区域之间的空间重叠情况。共有 218 座大坝积累了环境成本和负债，这些成本和负债由 22.4 亿立方米的尾矿和工业废物构成。大多数大坝（约 70%）位于 PCA 内，45 座大坝位于保护单位内，58 座位于各自的缓冲区，51 座位于特别保护区内。我们已经确定迫切需要实施适当的公共政策，以在 PA 和 PCA 中建立管理和监测机制，并解决与尾矿坝相关的高潜在社会环境破坏情景。
