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Mammal species with >30% habitat within mining areas, color‐coded according IUCN Red List categories (Threatened = Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable). Asterisks (*) indicates the 17 species that also have >30% habitat within operational mining areas. Black boxes around columns indicate the 17 species listed by IUCN Red List as directly threatened by mining and quarrying. Species are ordered based on proportional overlap (height of the histogram bars) to show that species with greater overlap also trend to be threatened with extinction or data deficient.
Source publication
Mining companies increasingly commit to a net positive impact on biodiversity. However, assessing the industry's progress toward achieving this goal is limited by knowledge of current mining threats to biodiversity and the relevant opportunities available for them to improve conservation outcomes. Here, we investigate the global exposure of terrest...
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Citations
... Therefore, new studies to assess synergies between potential local threats, such as mining operations, and global threats, such as global warming, are essential to carry out relevant conservation actions on endangered species such as cacti. community must address [3,4]. For this reason, it is essential to carry out assessments that allow quantification of the impact of mining on biodiversity to establish relevant mitigation and compensation protocols for the long-term maintenance of biodiversity [2][3][4]. ...
... community must address [3,4]. For this reason, it is essential to carry out assessments that allow quantification of the impact of mining on biodiversity to establish relevant mitigation and compensation protocols for the long-term maintenance of biodiversity [2][3][4]. ...
... The global biodiversity crisis is marked by an alarming rate of animal and plant extinctions, with hundreds of species at risk of disappearing [1]. The causes of these rates of extinction are numerous, including mining, which is essential to meet the global demand for resources [2][3][4]. This compromise between the need for resources and the loss of biodiversity indicates that mining must serve as a source of financing to develop alternative livelihoods that, in the long term, contribute to preventing the loss of biodiversity [3,4]. ...
Mining is an indispensable activity that threatens biodiversity globally. However, assessments of key ecological processes for the maintenance of plants threatened by mining, such as the effectiveness of frugivory and seed dispersal, are almost non-existent. We evaluated the effectiveness of fruit and seed dispersal in the threatened cactus Browningia candelaris at two different sites: one distant and one close to a mining company currently in operation. Unfortunately, in the study area, B. candelaris is only present in the two evaluated sites, which makes it impossible to have replications for the distant and nearby sites. With this caveat in mind, we evaluated the different parameters of dispersal effectiveness by comparing both sites, far and close to the copper mine. Fruit abundance was significantly higher near the mine. By contrast, animal richness was lower near the mine. However, animal visitation rates for consumption of immature and mature fruits did not differ significantly between sites. Of the 15 animals observed, only four consumed and defecated live seeds: the fox Lycalopex culpaeus, the lizard Microlophus theresioides, and the mouse Octodontomys gliroides and Phyllotis xantopygus. Seed dispersal effectiveness was higher near the mine, but extremely low at both sites. In fact, population recruitment of new cacti was null at both sites, near and far from the mine, due to the scarcity of water in the environment. This is probably due to the increasing aridity of the Atacama Desert due to global warming. Therefore, new studies to assess synergies between potential local threats, such as mining operations, and global threats, such as global warming, are essential to carry out relevant conservation actions on endangered species such as cacti.
... This is because the indirect threats from mineral extraction, such as off-site forest loss and life-cycle impacts (e.g., failings of tailing storage facilities), are often not captured within the assessment process since these indirect threats of mineral extraction require extensive analysis 9,10,41 combined with ambiguous categorization of threats within the assessment process-whereby threats from mining infrastructure such as forest loss may not result in mining being included in the species assessment as a threat at all. 55,59 Additionally, species imminently threatened by planned mineral extraction or exploration are not assessed as threatened, 59 and some data-deficient species that lack formal assessment are likely to be threatened due to their smaller range and population sizes. 22 The resources and power held by the mineral extraction industry have potential to drive expansion in ecologically important areas and impact regions we highlight as vulnerable. ...
... This is because the indirect threats from mineral extraction, such as off-site forest loss and life-cycle impacts (e.g., failings of tailing storage facilities), are often not captured within the assessment process since these indirect threats of mineral extraction require extensive analysis 9,10,41 combined with ambiguous categorization of threats within the assessment process-whereby threats from mining infrastructure such as forest loss may not result in mining being included in the species assessment as a threat at all. 55,59 Additionally, species imminently threatened by planned mineral extraction or exploration are not assessed as threatened, 59 and some data-deficient species that lack formal assessment are likely to be threatened due to their smaller range and population sizes. 22 The resources and power held by the mineral extraction industry have potential to drive expansion in ecologically important areas and impact regions we highlight as vulnerable. ...
... 86 The IUCN likely underestimates future threats and the secondary threats that the mineral extraction industry poses to biodiversity and could have underlying biases. Sonter et al. 59 found 36 species of mammal with >30% of their habitat within 10 km of mining sites, many of which were threatened by exploration and potential future mining, yet these were not recognized by IUCN as being threatened by mining and quarrying. Additionally, off-site deforestation indirectly caused by mining occurs in two-thirds of countries across the tropics 41 and, within the Brazilian Amazon, there is significantly higher deforestation up to 70 km from extraction sites. ...
Mining is a key driver of land-use change and environmental degradation globally, with the variety of mineral extraction methods used impacting biodiversity across scales. We use IUCN Red List threat assessments of all vertebrates to quantify the current biodiversity threat from mineral extraction, map the global hotspots of threatened biodiversity, and investigate the links between species’ habitat use and life-history traits and threat from mineral extraction. Nearly 8% (4,642) of vertebrates are assessed as threatened by mineral extraction, especially mining and quarrying, with fish at particularly high risk. The hotspots of mineral extraction-induced threat are pantropical, as well as a large proportion of regional diversity threatened in northern South America, West Africa, and the Arctic. Species using freshwater habitats are particularly at risk, while the effects of other ecological traits vary between taxa. As the industry expands, it is vital that mineral resources in vulnerable biodiversity regions are managed in accordance with sustainable development goals.
... S4), which, according to international regulatory frameworks, would hinder projects from receiving financial support [i.e., (37)]. Similarly, another study found that 32% of all mammal species worldwide with more than 30% of habitat within mining areas are currently listed as Threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red list (57). Because species of conservation concern would likely trigger CH status, companies operating in these areas should have adequate mitigation and compensation schemes in place to minimize their impact, which seems unlikely, given that most companies lack robust species baseline data (45). ...
The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of studies assessing the threat of mining to global biodiversity. By integrating a global mining dataset with great ape density distribution, we estimated the number of African great apes that spatially coincided with industrial mining projects. We show that up to one-third of Africa’s great ape population faces mining-related risks. In West Africa in particular, numerous mining areas overlap with fragmented ape habitats, often in high-density ape regions. For 97% of mining areas, no ape survey data are available, underscoring the importance of increased accessibility to environmental data within the mining sector to facilitate research into the complex interactions between mining, climate, biodiversity, and sustainability.
... We also found that 20% of mining areas overlapped with areas that likely qualify as Critical Habitat triggered by biodiversity features other than apes (Fig. S4), which, according to international regulatory frameworks, would hinder projects from receiving financial support (i.e., (37). Similarly, another study found that 32% of all mammal species worldwide with more than 30% of habitat within mining areas are currently listed as Threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red list (55). Since species of conservation concern would likely trigger CH status, companies operating in these areas should have adequate mitigation and compensation schemes in place to minimize their impact, which seems unlikely, given that most companies seem to lack robust species baseline data (43). ...
The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of studies assessing the threat of mining to global biodiversity. By integrating a global mining dataset with ape density distribution estimates, we explored the potential negative impact of industrial mining on African great apes. Our findings reveal that up to one-third of Africa’s great ape population faces mining-related risks. This is especially pronounced in West Africa, where numerous mining areas overlap with fragmented ape habitats, often occurring in high-density ape regions. For 97% of mining areas, no ape survey data are available, underscoring the importance of increased accessibility to environmental data within the mining sector to facilitate research into the complex interactions between mining, climate, biodiversity and sustainability.
Teaser
Mining for clean energy minerals could put one-third of Africa’s ape population at risk.
... Producing publicly available spatially-explicit databases of mining rights for construction minerals would be a major step to understand the extent and distribution of biodiversity threats and for identifying opportunities for mine restoration. Along with that there is a need for greater appreciation and improved characterization of the diversity of mining contexts (Sonter et al. 2022). Mining hotspots, industry structure, regulatory frameworks, and supply chains differ considerably among minerals (Franks 2020). ...
Amid a global infrastructure boom, there is increasing recognition of the ecological impacts of the extraction and consumption of construction minerals, mainly as concrete. Recent research highlights the significant and expanding threat these minerals pose to global biodiversity. To what extent is this pressure acknowledged in biodiversity conservation policy? We investigate how high-level national and international biodiversity conservation policies, including the 2011-2020 and post-2020 biodiversity strategies, the national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and the assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, address mining threats with a special focus on construction minerals. We find that mining appears rarely in national targets, but more frequently in national strategies with greater coverage of aggregates mining than limestone mining, yet it is dealt with superficially in most countries. We then outline an 8-point strategy to reduce the biodiversity impacts of construction minerals, which comprises actions such as targeting, reporting, and monitoring systems, the evidence-base around mining impacts on biodiversity, and the behavior of financial agents and businesses. Implementing these measures can pave the way for a more sustainable approach to construction mineral use and safeguard biodiversity.
... Several studies have begun to reveal the negative consequences of mining for biodiversity beyond lease boundaries at local scales, such as for primates and other medium-to-large-bodied (Owusu et al., 2018), and above-ground carbon, stem density and tree and butterfly richness in Tanzania (Seki et al., 2022). At regional scales, factoring in the indirect impacts of mining, Sonter et al. (2022) show substantial mining regions in Brazil overlap with high diversity mammal habitats. Iron ore-rich areas also coincide with regions of comparatively high plant species richness in Brazil (Murguía et al., 2016). ...
... Previous research on risks from mining to biodiversity at broad spatial scales has traditionally focussed on vertebrates Finer et al., 2008;Sonter et al., 2022), with just one study explicitly considering risks for plants (Murguía et al., 2016), and none examine arthropods. Although direct site-level mining impacts on plants are often explored, the only regional scale assessment of risk (Murguía et al., 2016) is limited to the examination of broad plant diversity zones (Barthlott et al., 2005(Barthlott et al., , 2007, highlighting the need for more detailed investigation. ...
... Our findings also reveal differences between biodiversity metrics and taxonomic groups used to assess the conservation implications of mining-induced deforestation. Prior analyses consider a narrow set of metrics, typically species richness (Murguía et al., 2016), with some expanding to consider restrictions in species distributions (Harfoot et al., 2018;Lessmann et al., 2016), or focus solely on threats to vertebrate species Finer et al., 2008;Sonter et al., 2022). However, we find mining in the Brazilian Amazon may pose more substantial threats to phylogenetic diversity, specifically for angiosperms (Figure 3c), and higher concentrations of range-restricted arthropod species F I G U R E 3 Biodiversity metrics per 0.5° hexagon containing 20 species occurrence records or more for Angiosperms, Arthropods and Vertebrates. ...
Aim
Mining is increasingly pressuring areas of critical importance for biodiversity conservation, such as the Brazilian Amazon. Biodiversity data are limited in the tropics, restricting the scope for risks to be appropriately estimated before mineral licensing decisions are made. As the distributions and range sizes of other taxa differ markedly from those of vertebrates—the common proxy for analysis of risk to biodiversity from mining—whether mining threatens lesser‐studied taxonomic groups differentially at a regional scale is unclear.
Location
Brazilian Amazon.
Methods
We assess risks to several facets of biodiversity from industrial mining by comparing mining areas (within 70 km of an active mining lease) and areas unaffected by mining, employing species richness, species endemism, phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic endemism metrics calculated for angiosperms, arthropods and vertebrates.
Results
Mining areas contained higher densities of species occurrence records than the unaffected landscape, and we accounted for this sampling bias in our analyses. None of the four biodiversity metrics differed between mining and nonmining areas for vertebrates. For arthropods, species endemism was greater in mined areas. Mined areas also had greater angiosperm species richness, phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic endemism, although less species endemism than unmined areas.
Main Conclusions
Unlike for vertebrates, facets of angiosperm and arthropod diversity are relatively higher in areas of mining activity, underscoring the need to consider multiple taxonomic groups and biodiversity facets when assessing risk and evaluating management options for mining threats. Particularly concerning is the proximity of mining to areas supporting deep evolutionary history, which may be impossible to recover or replace. As pressures to expand mining in the Amazon grow, impact assessments with broader taxonomic reach and metric focus will be vital to conserving biodiversity in mining regions.
