Institute for Ecological Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria.
Advancing Systems Analysis Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Sep 20;119(38):e2118273119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2118273119. Epub 2022 Sep 12.
Growing demand for minerals continues to drive deforestation worldwide. Tropical forests are particularly vulnerable to the environmental impacts of mining and mineral processing. Many local- to regional-scale studies document extensive, long-lasting impacts of mining on biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, the full scope of deforestation induced by industrial mining across the tropics is yet unknown. Here, we present a biome-wide assessment to show where industrial mine expansion has caused the most deforestation from 2000 to 2019. We find that 3,264 km2 of forest was directly lost due to industrial mining, with 80% occurring in only four countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana, and Suriname. Additionally, controlling for other nonmining determinants of deforestation, we find that mining caused indirect forest loss in two-thirds of the investigated countries. Our results illustrate significant yet unevenly distributed and often unmanaged impacts on these biodiverse ecosystems. Impact assessments and mitigation plans of industrial mining activities must address direct and indirect impacts to support conservation of the world's tropical forests.
对矿产资源不断增长的需求持续推动着全球的森林砍伐。热带森林特别容易受到采矿和矿物加工对环境的影响。许多地方到区域规模的研究记录了采矿对生物多样性和生态系统服务的广泛而持久的影响。然而，目前还不知道热带地区工业采矿导致的森林砍伐的全貌。在这里，我们进行了一次生物群落范围的评估，以展示从 2000 年到 2019 年，工业采矿扩张导致了哪些地区的森林砍伐最多。我们发现，有 3264 平方公里的森林因工业采矿而直接消失，其中 80%发生在仅四个国家：印度尼西亚、巴西、加纳和苏里南。此外，在控制了其他导致森林砍伐的非采矿因素后，我们发现采矿在三分之二的受调查国家造成了间接的森林损失。我们的研究结果表明，这些生物多样性丰富的生态系统受到了重大但分布不均且往往未得到管理的影响。对工业采矿活动的影响评估和缓解计划必须解决直接和间接的影响，以支持保护世界的热带森林。
