Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
An ongoing gold rush in the tropical forests of South America is putting one of the planet’s most biologically diverse landscapes in danger, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
In the study, researchers from the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras Departments of Biology and Environmental Sciences report that over 1,600 square kilometers of tropical forests were lost in South America due to gold mining from 2001 through 2013.
Furthermore, an increase of mining activity that saw the affected area increase from roughly 377 square kilometers to over 1,300 square kilometers since the 2007 global economic crisis resulted in significant losses within the confines of conservation areas, the authors noted.
“Although the loss of forest due to mining is smaller in extent compared to deforestation caused by other land uses, such as agriculture or grazing areas, deforestation due to mining is occurring in some of the most biologically diverse regions in the tropics,” lead author Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos said in a statement Tuesday. “For example, in the Madre de Dios Region in Perú, one hectare of forest can hold up to 300 species of trees.”
Due in part to uncertainty in global financial markets, global gold production has increased from approximately 2445 metric tons in 2000 to around 2770 metric tons in 2013. Also, rising demand for gold had led to a dramatic increase in the price of the precious metal, as it has spiked from $250 per ounce in 2000 to $1300 per ounce in 2013, the study authors noted.
This has served as the catalyst for increased mining activity globally, and made it possible for people to mine for gold in regions where it would not have previously been profitable to do so, including at deposits located beneath tropical forests.
However, doing so can lead to extensive forest loss and serious ecological damage caused by the removal of vegetation, the building of roads and railways for easy access, and the establishment of unorganized settlements in these regions. Some of the long-term environmental impacts could include failure of vegetation to regrow, the permanent loss of biovidersity and increases in the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.
Álvarez-Berríos and her colleagues set out to quantify the impact of gold mines in tropical forest regions by creating a geographical database highlighting the location of mines set up between the years of 2000 and 2013. They then cross-referenced this database with annual land cover maps that indicated the change of forest cover over that same period of time.
The study encompassed the tropical and subtropical forest biome below 1000 meters in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and French Guiana. It revealed that, over the 13-year period, 89 percent of forest loss occurred in just four regions: the Guianan moist forest ecoregion; the Southwest Amazon moist forest ecoregion; the Tapajós-Xingú moist forest ecoregion; and The Magdalena Valley-Urabá region.
While there was little deforestation inside strict protection areas, roughly one-third of the total deforestation took place within a 10 kilometer buffer zone around these areas, making the areas susceptible to the effects of chemical pollutants typically dispersed from mining areas.
“To decrease the amount of deforestation that is occurring as a result of gold mining in the tropical forests, it is important that awareness is raised among gold consumers to understand the environmental and social impacts of buying gold jeweler or investing in gold,” Álvarez-Berríos said. “It is important to also encourage more responsible ways of extracting gold by helping miners to extract in a more efficient way to reduce deeper encroachment into the forests.”
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