Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes, 2373, 05508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
VALE S/A. Environmental Licensing Management. Mina de Águas Claras. Prédio 1, térreo, Av. Doutor Marco Paulo Simon Jardim, 34.006-200, Nova Lima, MG, Brazil.
Environ Manage. 2023 Feb;71(2):483-493. doi: 10.1007/s00267-022-01756-y. Epub 2022 Dec 2.
The application of the mitigation hierarchy (MH) to mining projects is challenging in situations of locational overlap between endemic flora and mineral deposits. We review flora surveys conducted in connection with the environmental impact assessment of several iron ore mining projects in an area of high degree of endemism in Eastern Amazon to discuss the practical implications of anticipating conservation strategies. Desktop studies and secondary data review were conducted to guide field searches to determine the distribution of endemic flora, resulting in 45 out of 46 endemic plant species having their known distribution extended to new areas. A framework for positioning flora conservation strategies in the MH is presented. Specific habitat requirements and scarce knowledge about endangered and endemic flora species are a conservation obstacle, since essential information to define species conservation strategies may be lacking. We show that anticipating conservation strategies can minimize time-lag uncertainties related to restoration success and biodiversity offsets. The more effort is placed in the preventative steps of the MH, the smaller the time-lag between impact (biodiversity losses) and conservation outcomes (biodiversity gains), decreasing uncertainties and reducing risks to biodiversity.
在位置上存在地方性植物群与矿床重叠的情况下，将缓解层次结构（MH）应用于采矿项目具有挑战性。我们审查了与亚马逊东部一个高度特有地区的几个铁矿开采项目的环境影响评估相关的植物区系调查，以讨论预期保护策略的实际影响。桌面研究和二次数据分析指导了野外搜索，以确定特有植物区系的分布，结果将 46 种特有植物中的 45 种的已知分布扩展到了新的区域。提出了在 MH 中定位植物区系保护策略的框架。特定的栖息地要求和有关濒危和特有植物物种的稀缺知识是一个保护障碍，因为定义物种保护策略所需的基本信息可能缺失。我们表明，预期保护策略可以最大程度地减少与恢复成功和生物多样性补偿相关的时间滞后不确定性。在 MH 的预防措施中投入的努力越多，影响（生物多样性损失）和保护结果（生物多样性收益）之间的时间滞后就越小，不确定性就越低，对生物多样性的风险就越低。
