Environmental impacts of the life cycle of alluvial gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest

Kahhat, Ramzy; Parodi, Eduardo; Larrea‐Gallegos, Gustavo; Mesta, Carlos; Vázquez‐Rowe, Ian

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.01.246

Cited by 70 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Besides deforestation and forest degradation, another threat is the mercury used to amalgamate fine gold particles extracted from the river sediments, which is polluting the waters (Castello and Macedo 2016) and affecting the entire food web dynamics, including nearby communities and wildlife (Alvarez-Berríos et al 2016). The lack of education for miners are leading to unsustainable mining practices and high exposure to mercury for the upstream and downstream communities (Kahhat et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground carbon emissions from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon

Csillik

Asner

2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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In the Peruvian Amazon, high biodiversity tropical forest is underlain by gold-enriched subsurface alluvium deposited from the Andes, which has generated a clash between short-term earnings for miners and long-term environmental damage. Tropical forests sequester important amounts of carbon, but deforestation and forest degradation continue to spread in Madre de Dios, releasing carbon to the atmosphere. Updated spatially explicit quantification of aboveground carbon emissions caused by gold mining is needed to further motivate conservation efforts and to understand the effects of illegal mining on greenhouse gases. We used satellite remote sensing, airborne LiDAR, and deep learning models to create high-resolution, spatially explicit estimates of aboveground carbon stocks and emissions from gold mining in 2017 and 2018. For an area of ∼750 000 ha, we found high variations in aboveground carbon density (ACD) with mean ACD of 84.6 (±36.4 standard deviation) Mg C ha −1 and 83.9 (±36.0) Mg C ha −1 for 2017 and 2018, respectively. An alarming 1.12 Tg C of emissions occurred in a single year affecting 23,613 hectares, including in protected zones and their ecological buffers. Our methods and findings are preparatory steps for the creation of an automated, high-resolution forest carbon emission monitoring system that will track near real-time changes and will support actions to reduce the environmental impacts of gold mining and other destructive forest activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground carbon emissions from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon

Csillik

Asner

2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Environmental damage from ASGM due to the use of mercury, sediment inputs into rivers, etc. is well known and discussed in many regard (Kahhat et al 2019;de Sousa 2010;Wotruba et al 1998). However, the rebound effects resulting from excavators are often not the center of the discussion, but they are important.…”

Section: Key Issue 3-excavator Usementioning

confidence: 98%

“…The extraction of gold by the artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) sector simultaneously serves as a source of income for thousands of people and threatens the ecology (Fritz et al 2018;Hoadley and Limpitlaw 2004;iied, WBCSD 2002). Deforestation, mercury exposure, and sediment input into rivers have great impacts, such as water ecotoxicity and climate change (Kahhat et al 2019). These environmental problems must be addressed; however, this cannot be done without paying attention to all three parts of sustainability: the ecology, economy, and society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capability of social life cycle assessment for analyzing the artisanal small-scale gold mining sector—case study in the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil

Springer

Peregovich

Schmidt

2020

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Gold extraction in the Amazonian rainforest is accompanied by ecological threats and social grievances, but at the same time, the artisanal small-scale gold mining sector (ASGM) provides a livelihood for many people. To address this tradeoff, this paper analyzed the social aspects and their possible relations by conducting a case study based on a Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA). This study seeks to determine whether SLCA is capable of reflecting the sector. Method A literature-based guideline was used for collecting primary data during several field trips to the Tapajós Region in Brazil. This research instrument constituted the basis for information-oriented interviews and on-site observations. The SLCA categories used in this study were based on the United Nations Environment Programme and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) guidelines and the categories in the Fairmined Standard. In addition, secondary data obtained from the literature were used to provide insights into the sector. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with both deductive and inductive approaches. Results and discussion This study described the social aspects of the ASGM sector in the Tapajós Region, including the absence of the state, the illegality and informality of mining operations, the remote and rural area, and the organizational structure. In addition, the extraction methods, poor working conditions, and difficult living conditions were considered. Certain characteristics of the industry like unstable payments, worker movements, and low education levels were recognized, and thus, the relations among the social categories and rebound effects were identified. Several issues were proven to be key factors: unstable payments, autonomy, and the rebound effects of excavators. Complex relations among social issues but also towards ecological and economic issues do exist. The suitability of using the SLCA to reflect the ASGM sector was tested on this basis. Conclusion In some respects, the SLCA had limitations, e.g., due to the nonlinear relation between working hours and the amount of extracted gold. The impacts of technology depend on the underlying definition that is used. The current lack of cause-effect models impedes the assessment of an overall picture that considers the relations among the social aspects and other elements of sustainability. A holistic view must be applied if ecological problems are to be solved.

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“…ASGM activities are characterized for producing less than 100 000 tons per year Run-of-Mine (ROM), and where the operation involves rudimentary techniques to extract the gold [13]. Additionally, because of the use of liquid mercury, gold mining is known not only to leave severe impacts in the altered landscapes, but also to be associated with human health impacts [14][15][16][17] and social costs [17,18]. Most of these ASGM activities are reported to be done illegally, although the Peruvian Government has been trying to implement new regulations and punitive campaigns against illegal miners [10,11,19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A spatial pattern analysis of forest loss in the Madre de Dios region, Peru

Nicolau

Herndon

Flores-Anderson

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Over the past decades, the Peruvian Amazon has experienced a rapid change in forest cover due to the expansion of agriculture and extractive activities. This study uses spectral mixture analysis (SMA) in a cloud-computing platform to map forest loss within and outside indigenous territories, protected areas, mining concessions, and reforestation concessions within the Madre de Dios Region in Peru. The study area is focused on key areas of forest loss in the western part of the Tambopata National Reserve and surrounding the Malinowski River. Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus surface reflectance data spanning 2013-2018 were analyzed using cloud-based SMA to identify patterns of forest loss for each year. High-resolution Planet Dove (3m) and RapidEye (5m) imagery were used to validate the forest loss map and to identify the potential drivers of loss. Results show large areas of forest loss, especially within buffer zones of protected areas.Forest loss also appears in the Kotsimba Native Community within a 1 km buffer of the Malinowski River. In addition to gold mining, agriculture and pasture fields also appear to be major drivers of forest loss for our study period. This study also suggests that gold mining activity is potentially not restricted to the legal mining concession areas, with 49% of forest loss occurring outside the mining concessions. Overall accuracy obtained for the forest loss analysis was 96%. These results illustrate the applicability of a cloud-based platform not only for land use land cover change detection but also for accessing and processing large datasets; the importance of monitoring not only forest loss progression in the Madre de Dios, which has been increasing over the years, especially within buffer zones, but also its drivers; and reiterates the use of SMA as a reliable change detection classification approach.

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Environmental impacts of the life cycle of alluvial gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest

Cited by 70 publications

References 56 publications

Aboveground carbon emissions from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon

Aboveground carbon emissions from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon

Capability of social life cycle assessment for analyzing the artisanal small-scale gold mining sector—case study in the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil

A spatial pattern analysis of forest loss in the Madre de Dios region, Peru

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