scholarly journals Deforestation and Forest Degradation Due to Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: A 34-Year Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Caballero Espejo ◽  
Max Messinger ◽  
Francisco Román-Dañobeytia ◽  
Cesar Ascorra ◽  
Luis Fernandez ◽  
...  

While deforestation rates decline globally they are rising in the Western Amazon. Artisanal-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a large cause of this deforestation and brings with it extensive environmental, social, governance, and public health impacts, including large carbon emissions and mercury pollution. Underlying ASGM is a broad network of factors that influence its growth, distribution, and practices such as poverty, flows of legal and illegal capital, conflicting governance, and global economic trends. Despite its central role in land use and land cover change in the Western Amazon and the severity of its social and environmental impacts, it is relatively poorly studied. While ASGM in Southeastern Peru has been quantified previously, doing so is difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of the resulting landscape. Using a novel approach to classify mining that relies on a fusion of CLASlite and the Global Forest Change dataset, two Landsat-based deforestation detection tools, we sought to quantify ASGM-caused deforestation in the period 1984–2017 in the southern Peruvian Amazon and examine trends in the geography, methods, and impacts of ASGM across that time. We identify nearly 100,000 ha of deforestation due to ASGM in the 34-year study period, an increase of 21% compared to previous estimates. Further, we find that 10% of that deforestation occurred in 2017, the highest annual amount of deforestation in the study period, with 53% occurring since 2011. Finally, we demonstrate that not all mining is created equal by examining key patterns and changes in ASGM activity and techniques through time and space. We discuss their connections with, and impacts on, socio-economic factors, such as land tenure, infrastructure, international markets, governance efforts, and social and environmental impacts.

Author(s):  
Jorge Caballero Espejo ◽  
Max Messinger ◽  
Francisco Roman Dañobeytia ◽  
Cesar Ascorra ◽  
Luis E. Fernandez ◽  
...  

While deforestation rates decline globally they are rising in the Western Amazon. Artisanal-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a large cause of this deforestation and brings with it extensive environmental, social, governance, and public health impacts, including large carbon emissions and mercury pollution. Underlying ASGM is a broad network of factors that influence its growth, distribution, and practices such as poverty, flows of legal and illegal capital, conflicting governance, and global economic trends. Despite its central role in land use and land cover change in the Western Amazon and the severity of its social and environmental impacts, it is relatively poorly studied. While ASGM in Southeastern Peru has been quantified previously, doing so is difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of the resulting landscape. Using a novel approach to classify mining that relies on a fusion of CLASlite and the Global Forest Change dataset, two Landsat-based deforestation detection tools, we sought to quantify ASGM-caused deforestation in the period 1984–2017 in the southern Peruvian Amazon and examine trends in the geography, methods, and impacts of ASGM across that time. We identify nearly 100,000 ha of deforestation due to ASGM in the 34-year study period, an increase of 21% compared to previous estimates. Further, we find that 10% of that deforestation occurred in 2017, the highest annual amount of deforestation in the study period, with 53% occurring since 2011. Finally, we demonstrate that not all mining is created equal by examining key patterns and changes in ASGM activity and techniques through time and space. We discuss their connections with, and impacts on, socio-economic factors, such as land tenure, infrastructure, international markets, governance efforts, and social and environmental impacts.


Author(s):  
Jorge Caballero Espejo ◽  
Max Messinger ◽  
Francisco Roman D. ◽  
Cesar Ascorra ◽  
Luis E. Fernandez ◽  
...  

While deforestation rates decline globally they are rising in the western Amazon. Artisanal-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a large cause of this deforestation and brings with it extensive environmental, social, governance, and public health impacts, including large carbon emissions and mercury pollution. Underlying ASGM is a broad network of factors that influence its growth, distribution, and practices such as poverty, flows of legal and illegal capital, conflicting governance, and global economic trends. Despite its central role in land use and land cover change in the western Amazon and the severity of its social and environmental impacts, it is relatively poorly studied. While ASGM in southeastern Peru has been quantified previously, doing so is difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of the resulting landscape. Using a novel approach to classify mining that relies on a fusion of CLASlite and the Global Forest Change dataset, two Landsat-based deforestation detection tools, we sought to quantify ASGM-caused deforestation in the period 1984-2017 in the southern Peruvian Amazon and examine trends in the geography, methods, and impacts of ASGM across that time. We identify nearly 100,000 ha of deforestation due to ASGM in the 34-year study period, an increase of 21% compared to previous estimates. Further, we find that 10% of that deforestation occurred in 2017, with 53% occurring since 2011. Finally, we demonstrate key patterns and changes in ASGM activity and techniques through time and space and discuss their connections with, and impacts on, socio-economic factors such as land tenure, infrastructure, international markets, governance efforts, and social and environmental impacts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 662 ◽  
pp. 940-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramzy Kahhat ◽  
Eduardo Parodi ◽  
Gustavo Larrea-Gallegos ◽  
Carlos Mesta ◽  
Ian Vázquez-Rowe

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1038
Author(s):  
Leif Tore Trædal ◽  
Arild Angelsen

Vietnam has seemingly been able to shortcut the forest transition (FT) by quickly moving to the reforestation phase. Provincial-level forest cover and socio-economic trends are, however, not necessarily compatible with a standard FT framework. This article compares forest cover change and associated policy reforms in two provinces. Bac Kan is one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam, and has, after years of deforestation and forest degradation, expanded its forest cover during the past two decades. In contrast, Lam Dong province has higher GDP and population density, but has had high deforestation linked to expansion of perennial crops. This is contrary to what could be expected from a conventional FT hypothesis. Land use dynamics in Vietnam is heavily driven by its historical heritage related to the independence from French rule and heavy state-control and collectivization, and its more recent shift to “market-led socialism” (doi moi), involving export promotion, decentralization and land tenure reforms. The Vietnam experience shows that policies can trump the typical FT patterns linked to general development trends and structural changes, and that the typical FT-trajectory is not unavoidable. Yet, these policies have not primarily been guided by forest concerns, but should be viewed as a side effect of the doi moi policies pursuing economic growth and of the devolution of rights and decision-making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masruchin Masruchin

Corporate Social Responsibilityis a concept that a company has various forms of responsibility to all stakeholders including consumers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of the company's operations that include economic, social, and environmental aspects. Therefore CSR is closely related to "sustainable development", in which a company, in carrying out its activities must base its decisions not only on the impact on economic aspects, such as the level of profits or dividends (profits), but also must consider the social and environmental impacts that arise from that decision, both for the short term and the longer term.Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor (PMDG), in managing its Productive Waqf by establishing business units which mostly involve workers from the local society around PMDG. They are employed according to their skills. This is a form of implementing CSR in order to help advance and improve the welfare of the local society. The existence of these various business units is one of the educational facilities and as a form of CSR application which is actually intended to educate in the fields of independence, entrepreneurship, sincerity and sacrifice.PMDG involvement in social activities that are useful for the local society such as infrastructure development and village facilities, regeneration of students who are from around PMDG to be able to get higher education with funding from the PMDG, doing guidance to the local society through various religious activities, educational and economic activities is a form of PMDG responsibility to the local society environment and also to all stakeholders such as students, Ustadz, employees, so as to provide social and environmental impacts for the short term and the longer term.Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibilityandproductive waqf.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217
Author(s):  
Nádson Ricardo Leite de Souza ◽  
Vanessa Vasconcelos da Silva ◽  
Edson Henrique Almeida de Andrade ◽  
Valéria Raquel Porto de Lima

A Mata do Buraquinho consiste no maior remanescente de Mata Atlântica em área urbana do país, é cortada pelo Rio Jaguaribe, um dos afluentes do Rio Paraíba e maior rio urbano de João Pessoa/PB que, represado, forma o Açude do Buraquinho, de onde provém parte da água potável da capital paraibana. O local é declarado uma Área de Preservação Permanente desde 1989, devido à importância ambiental e, desde o ano de 2000, abriga o Jardim Botânico Benjamin Maranhão, que ocupa mais de 65% da área total, criado com a missão de fortalecer as ações de preservação e promover a intensificação dos estudos no representativo ambiente, todavia, a existência de trilhas em seu interior possibilita maior vulnerabilidade à degeneração ecossistêmica, somada aos efeitos de borda no contato com a densa urbanização do entorno. Com o objetivo de analisar os impactos ambientais negativos ocasionados por tais bordas, foram realizadas observações in loco, por meio de inventariações de parcelas concretizadas ao longo das trilhas mais frequentadas, onde se apurou diversos indicativos de degradação florestal. A partir disso, confirmou-se a autenticidade das teorias empregadas sobre os impactos ambientais negativos e a degeneração das espécies habituais, resultantes das ações de caráter antrópico, concluindo-se que a propagação dos efeitos de borda originada pela abertura de trilhas que favorecem o avanço da degradação e fazem-se necessárias ações de conservação mais rigorosas do que as em vigor, mesmo se tratando de uma área legalmente protegida.Palavras-chave: Efeitos de borda; Degeneração ecossistêmica; Mata do Buraquinho. ABSTRACTMata do Buraquinho is the largest remnant of Mata Atlântica in an urban area of the country. It is cut by the Jaguaribe River, - one of the tributaries of the Paraíba River and the largest urban river of João Pessoa/PB – which was dammed up forming the Açude do Buraquinho, from where comes part of the potable water of the capital of Paraíba. The place has been declared a Permanent Preservation Area since 1989. Due to its environmental importance and, since the year of 2000, it has sheltered the Benjamin Maranhão Botanical Garden, which occupies more than 65% of the total area. This garden was created with the mission of strengthening actions of preservation and to promote the intensification of studies in the representative environment. However, the existence of trails inside of it, allows greater vulnerability to the ecosystem degeneration, and combined with effects of border in the contact with the dense urbanization of the surrounding area. In order to analyze the negative environmental impacts caused by such edges, some observations were made in loco, through inventories of concretized plots along the most frequented trails, where several indications of forest degradation were obtained. From this, the authenticity of the theories used on the negative environmental impacts and the degeneration of the habitual species was confirmed. And resulting from actions of anthropic character, it was concluded that the propagation of the edge effects originated by the opening of tracks, favors the advance of the degradation and becomes necessary conservation actions more stringent than those in force, even in the case of a legally protected area. Keywords: Edge effects; Ecosystem Degeneration; Mata do Buraquinho. RESUMENLa “Mata do Buraquinho” es el testimonio más grande del bosque Atlántico en el área urbana de Brasil, es cortado por el Río Jaguaribe, uno de los tributarios del Río Paraíba, además, es el río urbano más grande de João Pessoa/PB, que forma la presa del “Buraquinho”, de donde proviene el suministro de agua potable para la capital del Estado de Paraíba. Esta zona es declarada un Área de Preservación Permanente desde 1989, debido a su importancia ambiental, y desde el año 2000, acoge el Jardín Botánico Benjamin Maranhão, que ocupa más de 65% del área total, creado con la misión de fortalecer las acciones de preservación y promover la intensificación de los estudios en el representativo de ambiente, sin embargo, la existencia de rutas en el interior aumenta la vulnerabilidad a la degeneración ecosistémica, añadidos a los efectos de borde que tienen contacto directo con la densa urbanización de los alrededores. Con el propósito de analizar los impactos ambientales negativos ocasionados por estos bordes, han sido realizadas observaciones "In loco", a través de inventariaciones de parcelas implementadas a lo largo de las rutas más frecuentadas, donde se ha detectado indicios de degradación forestal. Con eso, se ha confirmado la autenticidad de las teorías utilizadas sobre los impactos ambientales negativos y la degeneración de especies habituales, resultantes de acciones antrópicas, se concluye que la propagación de los efectos de borde originada por la apertura de rutas ha favorecido el avance de la degradación, con eso, son necesarias acciones de conservación todavía más estrictas de que las que existen, aún que ya sea un área protegida por la ley.Palabras-clave: Efectos de borde; Degeneración ecosistémica; Mata do Buraquinho.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelaal ◽  
◽  
Mohamed Sultan ◽  
R.V. Krishnamurthy ◽  
Mustafa Kemal Emil ◽  
...  

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