Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the establishment of environmental laws and regulations in some countries,
such as Peru and Chile, others have followed a tendency to review or relax the
environmental standards governing mining to encourage investment, trade
liberalization, technological change, cross-border merges and acquisitions,
increase influence from large corporations and investor pressure (WWF
International & IUCN
1999
). Despite these problems, some progress is being
made at policy, regulatory and technical levels by Latin American govern-
ments, mining industries and international actions to protect biodiversity such
as the Convention on Biological Biodiversity. Latin America has attracted the
majority of the world's investments in mining and so new laws and regulations
are not robust enough to prevent present and future threats to metallophytes
that may be discovered in the Region, mainly due to habitat loss.
Five mining hotspots have been identified in the world in 1999, one being
located in the Guyanan and Andean regions of Latin America and another at
the Pacific Rim (WWF International & IUCN
1999
). Many are coincident with
hotspots for biodiversity (Myers et al.
2000
), and vegetation has already been
affected by mining operations or is under heavy pressure by metal mining,
particularly due to badly planned and managed mining operations. For
example, it is interesting to note that many of the Chilean vascular plants,
particularly perennial herbs and shrubs, especially metallophytes, have a very
limited distributional range (Arroyo & Cavieres
1997
; Villagr´n & Hinojosa
1997
), and thus they are highly vulnerable to extinction if present and future
mining are not adequately regulated.
A major initiative by local scientists, governmental agencies and mining
companies is needed to promote the determination of metallophytes that
may exist in arid and semi-arid areas of Latin America through extensive
geobotanical exploration, not only on mineralised areas but also on aban-
doned tailings dumps or other metal-enriched areas. Metallophytes are key
resources for the minerals industry as they can be used for rehabilitation of
mined areas and massive mine wastes (i.e., phytostabilisation), such as tailings
storage facilities. Their proven and potential use in mine rehabilitation can
help drive conservational efforts as they normally thrive on mine sites that are
worked, thus improving environmental sustainability of the mining industry
beyond the limited regulatory framework (Whiting et al.
2004
; Ginocchio
et al.
2007
).
Research initiatives
Metallophytes are of proven special scientific interest, and metallophyte
research is carried out at many universities and government research instit-
utes worldwide. In Europe, collaborative research programmes have been facili-
tated by COST (Co-Op´ration Scientifique et Technologique) Action 837 ('Plant
biotechnology for the decontamination of waters and sites contaminated by
