Our Environment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 310

Forests, particularly tropical rainforests, meet most of these criteria and as such, are a
vital part of the Earth's ecosystems, and of biodiversity. Tropical forests contain some of
the most bio-diverse habitats on Earth, representing a vast natural resource, containing
the majority of the Earth's terrestrial species, many as yet unknown, and some of great
potential benefit to society should they survive to be discovered. It is therefore no surprise
that mining in forest areas is becoming increasingly controversial ( Case 7.5 ). Loss of natu-
ral forests, which once covered 48% of the land on Earth, has profound economic, social,
and environmental impacts. Forest cover has now been reduced to 29% (3,900 million hec-
tares) and continues to decrease every year at an alarming rate. Sixty million Indigenous
Peoples are almost wholly dependent on forests for their livelihood, and forests support up
to 1.6 billion people to greater or lesser extent (House of Common 2006). Forests also act
as an enormous carbon sink. The total carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter,
and soil represents roughly 50% more than the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. The
destruction of forests is estimated to contribute almost two billion tons of carbon to the
atmosphere every year. This represents a quarter of annual man-made carbon emissions
(FAO 2005). Furthermore there are concerns that the impacts of climate change may fur-
ther increase carbon emissions, as a result of forest die-off in tropical and temperate areas
caused by the predicted increase in temperatures and droughts.

Mining in forest areas is becoming
increasingly controversial.

Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples living traditional lifestyles may use many different plant and animal
species as food, and for a variety of other purposes including healing, birth control, shelter,
and ritual practices. Involvement of local Indigenous Peoples in baseline surveys is highly
beneficial as such people have a wealth of knowledge relating to the occurrence and behav-
iours of plants and animals inhabiting their lands. In situations where mining takes place
in areas inhabited by Indigenous Peoples, the use of local plants and animals should be
researched and documented so that the relevant species can be included in the rehabilita-
tion programme.

Involvement of local Indigenous
Peoples in baseline surveys is
highly benefi cial as such people
have a wealth of knowledge
relating to the occurrence and
behaviours of plants and animals
inhabiting their lands.

Conservation Reserves

Conservation reserves, including National Parks, provide the first line of defence against
species extinction, the aim being to protect representative areas of all habitat types.
However, while in some countries this aim has been largely achieved, this is not the case in
many other countries, including most of the developing world. Moreover, even where con-
servation reserves have been established, many countries lack the capacity to implement
the necessary conservation procedures, so that the reserves become degraded despite their
conservation status. Nevertheless, such reserves provide the only hope for some species
which are already at low population levels. Proponents of mining projects in the vicinity of
conservation reserves may assist the conservation of biodiversity within and around these
reserves by sponsoring scientific research or contributing to management initiatives and
capacity building.
Occurrence of a species within a conservation reserve does not necessarily guarantee the
continued survival of that species. Also, the absence of conservation status does not indicate
that an area has no valuable ecological attributes or that it does not support populations of
rare or endangered species. Each situation needs to be evaluated on its own merits.

The absence of conservation
status does not indicate that an
area has no valuable ecological
attributes.