The environmental impact of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: identifying problems and possible solutions

This paper examines the environmental impacts of small-scale gold mining in Ghana, and prescribes a series of recommendations for improving environmental performance in the industry. Since the enactment of the Small Scale Gold Mining Law in 1989, which effectively legalized small-scale gold mining in the country, industrial operations, collectively, have made important contributions to national gold output, foreign exchange earnings and employment. Accompanying this pattern of socio-economic growth, however, have been increased environmental complications – namely, mercury pollution and land degradation. The Ghanaian Minerals Commission has been burdened with most of the jurisdictional responsibilities related to small-scale mining, but with a staff of only 35–40 people working with a pool of highly obsolete research resources, it is clearly incapable of facilitating sufficient environmental improvement on its own. It is concluded that marked environmental improvements can only be achieved if: (1) assistance is provided to the Minerals Commission from local governmental bodies and academic units; (2) industry-specific environmental management tools and strategies are designed and implemented; (3) concerted effort is made to prospect for deposits suitable for small-scale gold mining, a key to preventing unnecessary exploration; and (4) a nation-wide industrial mercury study is commissioned, and a mercury retorting programme is implemented.     

Present conditions and prospects of the researches on nature reserves in China

The construction of nature reserves in China is reviewed in this paper, mainly including the number, type, administration and distribution of nature reserves, the progress in research on biodiversity, evaluation, management, sustainable development of nature reserves in China is summarized briefly, and some development tendencies of research on nature reserves are put forward.     

中国自然保护区研究的现状与展望

1IntroductionIn order to protect nature resources and natural environment, rescue the species of rare and endangered wildlife, renew vegetation, forestry and wildlife populations that are broken, nature reserves (NR) are set up. 'Nature Reserve' has been defined as a planning area of land and/or sea protected and managed specially through legal means. Nature reserves are representative natural ecosystems, natural distribution areas of rare and endangered wildlife species and natural relics wi…     

Forest transition and biogeographic meaning of the current laurel forest landscape in Canary Islands,Spain

This study provides a geographical synthesis of the current natural landscape dynamics of the Canarian laurel forest based on the results of a biogeographic study of its structure, composition, and dynamics. Historical socioeconomic changes and recent environmental conservation strategies have led to natural forest dynamics that make it necessary to change our current scientific conception of the Canarian laurel forest landscape. According to the forest transition theory, in the protected areas of Anaga and Teno Rural Parks (Tenerife) and Garajonay National Park (La Gomera), the forest reaction to the gradual abandonment of economic activity reveals how strongly human activity has shaped the features of the laurel forest, which traditionally has been considered to be relatively untouched by humankind. How natural disturbances have affected this forest over the past few years has also contributed to a better understanding of its dynamics. This study explains the key patterns of spontaneous dynamics in the Canarian laurel forest to enrich our understanding of this forest and its landscape, while highlighting the importance of human activity as the catalyst for its current vigorous dynamics.     

Impacts of artisanal gold mining systems on soil and woody vegetation in the semi‐arid environment of northern Ethiopia

Gold mining is a tremendously important economic activity in rural districts of Ethiopia. We assessed the impacts of artisanal gold mining on soil and woody vegetation in northern Ethiopia. Estimation of soil loss, plant inventory, group discussions and transect studies were used to address the research questions. We employed t‐test to compare woody species and soil loss between mined and unmined sites. Moreover, we ran one‐way ANOVA to compare the average volume of soil loss among the mining sites. The study shows that gold mining removed colossal volumes of soil from the mining landscape with a significant difference among gold mining sites (P ≤ 0.05). Soil loss between the mined and unmined sites was also significant (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, gold mining destroyed massive tracts of vegetation. Woody species encountered at plot level decreased from artisanal gold mined to unmined sites (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, dead trees and exposed tree roots were higher in mined than the unmined areas (P ≤ 0.05). This discouraged regeneration and recruitment of woody vegetation. To conclude, gold mining system converted vegetated sites and farmlands into dysfunctional landscape. Therefore, we suggest that combined rehabilitation efforts are required to overcome the challenges of artisanal gold mining on sustainable land management in northern Ethiopia.     

To Move or not to Move: Community Members’ Reaction to Surface Mining Activities in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Abstract

Despite the impact of mining-induced environmental change on community livability, we know little about how disparities in knowledge of health risks associated with mining influence residents’ response, especially in an already environmentally stressed context. Guided by theoretical insights from solastalgia, we examined residents’ decision to relocate due to increasing gold mining activities in the fragile Northern Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana. Fitting complementary log-log regression models to cross-sectional data from the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana, we found that residents with limited knowledge of potential health impacts of mining and those who believe mining activities were not meeting environmental standards were more likely to consider relocating. Given the centrality of land in community health and wellbeing in the UWR, Ghana’s mining guidelines should promote local participation in the regulation of mining activities and guarantee the rights of indigenes to livable native lands.     

Spatio-temporal analysis of the human footprint in the Hengduan Mountain region: Assessing the effectiveness of nature reserves in reducing human impacts

Mapping the human footprint(HF) makes it possible to quantify human influence, which has had an unprecedented impact on the global ecosystem. Using five categories of human pressure data, this study mapped the HF of the Hengduan Mountain region and assessed the effectiveness of nature reserves in reducing human impacts. The results showed that the HF of the Hengduan Mountain region was generally higher in the south and lower in the north. The HF increased by 11.24% over the past 25 years, with faster growth in the southeast. The HF growth rate in nature reserves was much lower than that across the region, which indicated that nature reserves played an important role in reducing the impact of human pressure. A study of Baimaxueshan nature reserve found that establishing nature reserves could effectively reduce the impact of human activities, and no "leakage" occurred. Population growth was an important reason for the increased HF in nature reserves. The development of ecotourism in nature reserves must be based on ecological protection. Strengthening the long-term monitoring, evaluation, and management of nature reserves is a basic requirement for their long-term development.     

中南半岛森林覆被变化研究进展

中南半岛森林覆被是热带地区极为重要的自然资源,对当地生态环境和社会经济发展都有重要影响。本文从遥感监测与制图、时空变化格局、影响因素和生态环境效应4 个方面,系统总结和评述了中南半岛森林覆被变化的研究进展,并对研究问题和发展方向进行了讨论。研究表明：①中南半岛森林覆被遥感监测数据源由光学遥感逐渐转向雷达遥感,监测方法向采用多分类器和多源信息转变,监测对象主要是天然森林覆被,人工林监测仍面临多重困难;②1980-2010 年期间,中南半岛不同地区森林覆被变化时空差异明显,其中,在1990 年前森林覆被面积为净增加,之后净减少;在空间上,泰国、老挝、缅甸和柬埔寨森林面积在1990 年后均持续减少,只有越南呈增长趋势;③中南半岛森林覆被变化的直接驱动因素主要为经济林扩张、刀耕火种农业、道路建设和商业采伐,间接驱动因素包括人口、社会经济和政策等因素,主要表现为森林数量变化、森林退化和森林再生/恢复等方面,其程度与干扰方式、强度、频率直接相关;④中南半岛森林覆被变化的生态环境效应主要体现在水分效应、大气环境效应、土壤效应和生物效应4方面。     

阿尔泰山砂金成矿背景分析

在分析阿尔泰山地质演化历史的基础上．讨论了相关地质体为该区砂金矿提供物源的可能性。指出从石炭纪到二叠纪。广泛发育的原生金矿床构成了该造山带金的专属成矿域。所以原生金矿是砂金最主要的物源。新生代,阿尔泰山在喜马拉雅运动影响下,发生差异性升降和遭受非均一性剥蚀．导致砂金矿在空间分布上和原生金矿成反消长关系。在砂金成矿过程中,氧化还原反应起着积极作用。     

Fighting Over Forest: Toward a Shared Analysis of Livelihood Conflicts and Conflict Management in Ghana

Conflicts undermine forest-based livelihoods for the rural poor. Conflict management is key to preventing such conflicts. This article analyzes actor perceptions of forest- and tree-related conflicts and conflict management in Ghana's high forest zone. It also assesses a phased methodology that promotes shared problem definition and ownership of recommendations on conflict resolution strategies through the presentation and discussion of findings from document analysis, surveys, interviews, and focus-group discussions at a workshop with forest professionals held in Kumasi, Ghana. The study found that conflicts are inherent in forest-based livelihoods due to policy and legislative failures and institutional deficiencies, perceived goal incompatibility, opportunities for interfering with the attainment of one another's goals, and environmental scarcity. Ongoing forest governance reforms in Ghana should consider the stepwise conflict management model developed by the workshop participants involved in this study, but expand it to include the views of other stakeholder groups.     

天柱山黄山松群落特征及其环境功能评价

应用样方法,通过野外实地调查、数理统计,分析了天柱山黄山松群落特征和物种多样性;采用因子分析法、专家评价法和模糊评价方法,评价了天柱山黄山松群落环境功能及价值。结果表明:天柱山黄山松群落物种组成较复杂,科属分散,共有52科105属,区系成分多样,覆盖了9个种子植物科的分布区类型,具有明显的从北亚热带常绿阔叶林向暖温带落叶阔叶林过渡的特点;物种多样,乔木层、灌木层、草本层的Shannon-Wiener指数分别为1.9814、2.3175、2.1077,但由于人类活动的影响,乔木层黄山松的相对密度和优势度较大,多样性指数相对较低;群落顺行演替,环境服务功能多样,保护价值较重要。     

Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Senegal: Livelihoods,Customary Authority,and Formalization

In Sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to formalize the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector under legal frameworks and to improve its environmental and health practices have largely failed as a result of top-down policy measures that make change complicated and burdensome for low-resource miners. Using evidence from a case study of the ASGM sector within areas of Senegal, this article demonstrates that ASGM has become an important source of income for many traditionally agricultural rural populations. The findings point toward the embedded nature of ASGM within customary management structures in Senegal, and demonstrate that customary authority is an important component of ASGM operations and development, and should be recognized and integrated into innovative formalization policies and better practices initiatives.     

Latitudinal variation of leaf morphological traits from species to communities along a forest transect in eastern China

Comprehensive information on geographic patterns of leaf morphological traits in Chinese forests is still scarce. To explore the spatial patterns of leaf traits, we investigated leaf area (LA), leaf thickness (LT), specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) across 847 species from nine typical forests along the North-South Transect of Eastern China (NSTEC) between July and August 2013, and also calculated the community weighted means (CWM) of leaf traits by determining the relative dominance of each species. Our results showed that, for all species, the means (± SE) of LA, LT, SLA, and LDMC were 2860.01 ± 135.37 mm², 0.17 ± 0.003 mm, 20.15 ± 0.43 m² kg^–1, and 316.73 ± 3.81 mg g^–1, respectively. Furthermore, latitudinal variation in leaf traits differed at the species and community levels. Generally, at the species level, SLA increased and LDMC decreased as latitude increased, whereas no clear latitudinal trends among LA or LT were found, which could be the result of shifts in plant functional types. When scaling up to the community level, more significant spatial patterns of leaf traits were observed (R ² = 0.46–0.71), driven by climate and soil N content. These results provided synthetic data compilation and analyses to better parameterize complex ecological models in the future, and emphasized the importance of scaling-up when studying the biogeographic patterns of plant traits.     

Making a living in the cocoa frontier,Western Ghana: Diversifying incomes in a cocoa economy

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 107(2):29–44, 2007

The literature on livelihoods in rural Africa has for the past decade documented and discussed the growing importance of non-farm income for rural livelihoods and often linked this to an increasing divorce of rural livelihoods from farming and land. This paper challenges the view that the increasing importance of income earned on non-farm activities is a direct expression of processes of deagrari-anisation. Drawing on empirical evidence from recent research in the Ghanaian cocoa frontier, the paper shows that a growing importance of income from non-farm activities is evident, but that incomefrom cocoa is still the determining factor for most households' income and thereby for the demand for non-farm goods and investment in the non-farm sector. By identifying two overall factors explaining the level of income diversification, the paper questions how generally applicable processes of deagrarianisation are in the Ghanaian case. Firstly, the actual crop cultivated and its price and marketing possibilities are of great importance for a farmer's choice to engage and stay in the agricultural sector or to diversify into non-farm activities. Secondly, different dynamics are evident between settlements dominated by either migrant or indigenous households, mainly due to unequal access to land. The paper argues that what on a general scale may look like processes of deagrarianisation during the last decade to a large extent can be explained by migrants without access to land who engage full-time in the nonfarm sector and by cocoa farmers diversifying their incomes, but not leaving a deteriorated agriculture.     

Human-driven topographic effects on the distribution of forest in a flat,lowland agricul-tural region简

Complex topography buffers forests against deforestation in mountainous regions. However, it is unknown if terrain also shapes forest distribution in lowlands where human impacts are likely to be less constrained by terrain. In such regions, if important at all, to- pographic effects will depend on cultural-historical factors and thus be human-driven （an- thropogenic） rather than natural, except in regions where the general climate or extreme soils limit the occurrence of forests. We used spatial regression modeling to assess the extent to which topographic factors explain forest distribution （presence-absence at a 48x48 m resolu- tion） in a lowland agricultural region （Denmark, 43,075 km2） at regional and landscape scales （whole study area and 10x10 km grid cells, respectively）, how landscape-scale for- est-topography relationships vary geographically, and which potential drivers （topographic heterogeneity, forest cover, clay content, coastal/inland location） determine this geographic heterogeneity. Given a moist temperate climate and non-extreme soils all landscapes in Denmark would naturally be largely forest covered, and any topographic relationships will be totally or primarily human-driven. At regional scale, topographic predictors explained only 5% of the distribution of forest. In contrast, the explanatory power of topography varied from 0%-61% at landscape scale, with clear geographic patterning. Explanatory power of topog- raphy at landscape scale was moderately dependent on the potential drivers, with topog- raphic control being strongest in areas with high topographic heterogeneity and little forest cover. However, these conditioning effects were themselves geographically variable. Our findings show that topography by shaping human land-use can affect forest distribution even in flat, lowland regions, but especially via localized, geographically variable effects.     

区域可持续发展中的环境伦理案例分析:不同社会群体责任

环境伦理是对人与自然之间道德关系的认知,在区域发展中构建可持续发展的环境伦理观是实现人与环境协调的核心内容。从区域发展的案例入手,从哲学层面分析区域发展中人与环境产生冲突的原因,构建区域可持续发展环境伦理观,明确不同利益主体应承担的环境伦理责任与义务,是实现可持续发展的必要内容。本文对云南省林浆纸一体化工程进行环境伦理探讨,分析了桉树种植的土地资源、生态效应、纸浆生产的环境影响、经济效益、利益流向等一系列问题;从环境伦理角度对林浆纸工程进行分析,提出了可持续发展环境伦理观建立和环境伦理规范,认为在利益冲突的形势下,应该遵循"非人类中心"的环境伦理准则,贯彻人地和谐的自然观,综合考虑生态安全原则、综合效益原则、公平原则、共赢竞争原则,采取综合思维方法,构建可持续发展的环境伦理观;分析不同社会团体在区域可持续发展建设中的环境伦理责任,提出了决策者群体、企业家群体、媒介群体、科学家群体、公众群体等在环境伦理意识、环境伦理责任、环境伦理义务等方面所应起到的作用。     

中国天山西部山区森林积雪消融过程观测分析——以巩乃斯河谷为例

通过对2013年春季中国科学院天山积雪与雪崩研究站区内阳坡无林地和阴坡不同开阔度森林内积雪深度、融雪速率以及常规气象的观测,分析了融雪期不同开阔度森林积雪的消融过程以及积雪表面能量平衡特征。结果表明:不同开阔度林冠下积雪深度具有相同的变化趋势,森林的林冠开阔度越大,林下积雪深度越大,林下积雪开始消融和完全消融的时间越晚,消融期也越长。森林积雪融雪开始和结束时间比阳坡无林地区晚20~30 d左右。融雪前期林冠开阔度越大,其林下融雪速率越小。融雪后期则森林开阔度越大,森林积雪的融雪速率越大。不同时期由于不同开阔度林冠下雪面能量收支以及雪层深度等物理特性的差异,从而使不同开阔度林冠下森林积雪融雪速率的相对大小,融雪速率最大值出现时间和日变化特征均不相同。晴天森林积雪的消融速率和日变化特征取决于净短波辐射和长波辐射变化特征。降水期间,其融雪速率的变化则主要受降水形式、降水量以及积雪深度等雪层特性的影响。     

川西米亚罗亚高山地区云杉林群落结构分析

岷江上游杂谷脑河流域米亚罗地区是典型的亚高山针叶林分布区域,也是国家实施天然林保护工程的重点地区。本文分析了该区云杉原始林的种类组成、层片结构、云杉径级和高度分布格局。调查样地共有37种植物,隶属于22科30个属,其中主要以温带成分的小叶型、草质、中高位芽植物为主。群落层次结构复杂,可分为乔木层、灌木层、草本层和苔藓层四个层次,乔木层郁闭度一般为0．6～0．8,云杉为乔木层的绝对优势树种,占70％以上,平均树高在17m左右,胸径在8～25cm之间。云杉高度主要集中在18～22m和8～12m两个区间,分别占云杉总个体数54．4％和25．0％;而胸径主要集中在25cm和30cm两个径级,占总数的52．6％,二者都表现为主林层和次林层的集中分布格局。与云杉人工林群落相比较,原始林层次结构复杂、物种丰富度高,生态功能强,可将其群落结构作为诊断亚高山针叶林生态系统健康的指标之一。     

中国东北地区林地面积变化的动态模拟

There is plenty of forests in Northeast China which contributes a lot to the conservation of water and land resources, produces timber products, and provides habitats for a huge number of wild animals and plants. With changes of socio-economic factors as well as the geophysical conditions, there are dramatic changes on the spatial patterns of forest area. In this sense, it is of great significance to shed light on the dynamics of forest area changes to find the underlining reasons for shaping the changing patterns of forest area in Northeast China. To explore the dynamics of forest area change in Northeast China, an econometric model is developed which is composed of three equations identifying forestry production, conversion from open forest to closed forest and conversion from other land uses to closed forest so as to explore the impacts on the forest area changes from demographic, social, economic, location and geophysical factors. On this basis, we employ the Dynamics of Land System (DLS) model to simulate land-use conversions between forest area and non-forest cover and the land-use conversions within the sub-classes of forest area for the period 2000–2020 under business as usual scenario, environmental protection scenario and economic growth scenario. The simulation results show that forest area will expand continuously and there exist various kinds of changing patterns for the sub-classes of forest area, for example, closed forest will expand continuously and open forest and shrub will decrease a little bit, while area of other forest will keep intact. The research results provide meaningful decision-making information for conserving and exploiting the forest resources and making out the planning for forestry production in the Northeast China region.