Mining poses significant and potentially underestimated risks to tropical forests worldwide. In Brazil’s Amazon, mining drives deforestation far beyond operational lease boundaries, yet the full extent of these impacts is unknown and thus neglected in environmental licensing. Here we quantify mining-induced deforestation and investigate the aspects of mining operations, which most likely contribute. We find mining significantly increased Amazon forest loss up to 70 km beyond mining lease boundaries, causing 11,670 km2 of deforestation between 2005 and 2015. This extent represents 9% of all Amazon forest loss during this time and 12 times more deforestation than occurred within mining leases alone. Pathways leading to such impacts include mining infrastructure establishment, urban expansion to support a growing workforce, and development of mineral commodity supply chains. Mining-induced deforestation is not unique to Brazil; to mitigate adverse impacts of mining and conserve tropical forests globally, environmental assessments and licensing must considered both on- and off-lease sources of deforestation.

https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=rsfac

Mining drives extensive deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Social impact assessment in the mining sector: Review and comparison of indicators frameworks

Mining-induced displacement and resettlement: a critical appraisal

Assessing driving forces of land use and land cover change by a mixed-method approach in north-eastern Ghana, West Africa

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:329831/UQ329831OA.pdf

Processes of land use change in mining regions

Land use conflicts are becoming increasingly apparent from local to global scales. Surface gold mining is an extreme source of such a conflict, but mining impacts on local livelihoods often remain unclear. Our goal here was to assess land cover change due to gold surface mining in Western Ghana, one of the world’s leading gold mining regions, and to study how these changes affected land use systems. We used Landsat satellite images from 1986–2002 to map land cover change and field interviews with farmers to understand the livelihood implications of mining-related land cover change. Our results showed that surface mining resulted in deforestation (58%), a substantial loss of farmland (45%) within mining concessions, and widespread spill-over effects as relocated farmers expand farmland into forests. This points to rapidly eroding livelihood foundations, suggesting that the environmental and social costs of Ghana’s gold boom may be much higher than previously thought.

/pdf/impacts-of-surface-gold-mining-on-land-use-systems-in-1bkurarhy2.pdf

Impacts of Surface Gold Mining on Land use Systems in Western Ghana

The result of correlation analysis between tree-ring growth and climate is the key indicator in dendroclimatic investigations. Combinations of different climate datasets with different tree-ring parameters of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.), give different correlation results. Samples for this study were collected in spruce forests of northern Tian Shan in the southeastern part of Kazakhstan. Several combinations of monthly, daily, gridded and station climate data with earlywood (EW), latewood (LW), total ring width (TRW) of young, old and mixed (old and young) trees were checked. EW showed the best correlations with precipitation, LW with temperature and TRW with Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Correlation analysis indicates that daily climate data in combination with EW and LW provide best results. Strongest correlation with precipitation was found for EW of old trees, for the period July 6th – November 3rd (previous year), r = 0.64 (p<0.05). LW of agemixed trees showed correlation with temperature of current year. Strongest correlations: with average temperature, for the period June 11th – August 4th, r = –0.67; with maximum temperature, for the period June 25th – July 17th, r = –0.66 (p<0.05) and with minimum temperature for the period June 11th – August 4th, r = –0.64 (p<0.05). TRW of young trees showed the strongest correlation with the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index 12, for June of current year, r = 0.61 (p<0.05). Finally a shifting of strongest correlation between EW of mixed trees and precipitation was found. The strongest correlations with gridded data were found in previous July and with station data in previous October. This study provides new information for understanding the relationships between tree-ring growth and climate in the Trans-Ili Alatau.

/pdf/searching-for-the-best-correlation-between-climate-and-tree-4jo6mcgmuc.pdf

Searching for the best correlation between climate and tree rings in the Trans-Ili Alatau, Kazakhstan

Dendroclimatology in Kazakhstan

http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/EGU2013-13074.pdf

High-mountainous permafrost under continental-climatic conditions: actual results of different mapping methods and an empirical-statistical modeling approach for the Northern Tien Shan (SE Kazakhstan)

Hilmar Schröder

Papers

Impacts of Surface Gold Mining on Land use Systems in Western Ghana

Searching for the best correlation between climate and tree rings in the Trans-Ili Alatau, Kazakhstan

Dendroclimatology in Kazakhstan

High-mountainous permafrost under continental-climatic conditions: actual results of different mapping methods and an empirical-statistical modeling approach for the Northern Tien Shan (SE Kazakhstan)