Global mining activity is increasingly destroying forests, including protected areas, according to a recent analysis. Between 2001 and 2020, nearly 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of tree cover, an area a third the size of Denmark, was lost from mining-related activity, the analysis from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found. The associated greenhouse gas emissions amounted to about 36 million metric tons annually, the authors write, similar to Finland’s fossil fuel emissions in 2022. Of the total tree cover loss, some 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) were in tropical primary rainforests, 260,000 hectares (643,000 acres) were in lands governed by Indigenous peoples and local communities, and 150,000 hectares (371,000 acres) were in protected areas. Nearly 90% of the mining-related tree cover loss was concentrated in just 11 countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, the U.S., Canada, Peru, Ghana, Suriname, Myanmar, Australia and Guyana. “Cutting down trees not only destroys habitats and pushes species toward extinction but also worsens climate change by releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Radost Stanimirova, the report’s co-author and research associate at WRI, told Mongabay in an email. “Additionally, many Indigenous communities rely on these forests for food, medicine, and their cultural practices.” The report notes that mining’s contribution to the overall global tree cover loss is smaller than other drivers of deforestation, such as forestry, which caused 130 million hectares (321 million acres) of tree cover loss, or wildfires (90 million hectares, or 222 million acres) in the same period. However, Stanimirova said the regional impacts…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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