A new study - led by researchers from Clark University in the US - showed that industrial mining of materials such as coal, gold and iron ore leads to the deforestation of tropical forests, in addition to the clearing of forests that were not easy to penetrate, for use in mines and roads.
Clean energy and tropical deforestation
In the first study to estimate the impact of industrial mining on tropical forest loss, an international team of scientists found that only 4 countries are largely responsible for deforestation: Brazil, Indonesia, Ghana and Suriname.
The four countries topped the list as a result of the removal of nearly 80% of tropical forests, due to large-scale mining, during the period between 2000 and 2019.
The area of forests that were removed is estimated at 3,264 square kilometers, according to a report published on the Science Alert website.
Brazil, Indonesia, Ghana and Suriname topped the list of countries with the most deforestation (Getty Images)
Although at least 70 percent of deforestation is done to prepare land for agriculture, researchers consider industrial mining a new concern, due to the increasing global demand for minerals used in clean energy technologies to combat climate change.
Mining and tropical deforestation
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on September 12, stated that mines around the world extract more than twice the amount of raw materials compared to as it was in 2000.
The researchers studied global satellite imagery and forest loss tracking data, along with information from industrial mining sites over the past two decades.
Road construction and development activities are not included in environmental impact assessments of mine projects (Getty Images)
The researchers reported that since 2000, 26 countries have been responsible for most of the world's tropical deforestation.
The biggest losses were in Indonesia, where coal mines expanded on the island of Borneo.
In Ghana and Suriname, there have been high rates of deforestation around gold and bauxite mines, and mining of gold and iron ore has led to deforestation due to mining in Brazil.
Mining operations often clear forests, to make way for expansion of extraction sites and storage facilities as well as for the construction of access roads and the construction of miners' settlements.
“Road construction and development activities are often not included in the environmental impact assessments that are conducted prior to approval of the mine,” said environmental engineer Juliana Sequeira Gay, of the non-profit Institute for Sustainability in Brazil, who was not involved in the study.