Floodplains are extraordinarily productive because they are the interface between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are remarkably diverse because they integrate a mosaic of lakes, marshes, palm swamps and inundated forests, which create the complex food webs that support fish populations. Floodplain habitats are socially and economically vital because tens of thousands of families depend upon their natural resources for their livelihoods. The impacts from placer mining are catastrophic to floodplains because miners overturn the top layer of soils to expose the gold-bearing placer sediments, leaving behind a desolate moonscape. A placer mine typically occupies a floodplain in its entirety, extending from terrace to terrace and expanding upstream and downstream over dozens of kilometers. A common variant consists of a dredge mounted on a barge that exploits the channel bed of larger rivers that drain wildcat mining landscapes. The combination of placer mines in the headwaters and dredge-barges working downstream can convert a clear-water riparian ecosystem into a silt-laden and polluted river (e.g., the Tapajós). The floodplains of the Andean piedmont and certain geologically defined landscapes on the Brazilian and Guiana Shield attract tens of thousands of wildcat miners, who employ placer mining technology that is particularly destructive and extraordinarily toxic. Credit: © IBAMA & Vincius Mendonça, CC BY-SA 2.0, Flickr.com © Ryan M. Bolton, Shutterstock. At least 350,000 hectares (about 864,800 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been lost in the Pan Amazon due to placer mining activities. This value, which is derived from satellite images, underestimates the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post Illegal mining in the Pan Amazon: an ecological disaster for floodplains and local communities appeared first on EnviroLink Network.