Threat of mining to African great apes 

Abstract: 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.

Schematic overview of the approximate potential direct (10 km) and indirect threats (50 km) on apes linked to mining activities. Expected high and moderate to lower risk of impact is indicated by red and yellow pointers, respectively.

Mimi Arandjelovic, Abdulai Barrie, Geneviève Campbell, Stefanie Heinicke, Tatyana Humle, Célestin Y. Kouakou, Hjalmar S. Kühl, Isabel Ordaz-Németh, Henrique M. Pereira, Helga Rainer, Johannes Refisch, Laura Sonter, Tenekwetche Sop
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstrasse 4, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution, Germany.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Re:wild, Austin, Texas, USA.
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany.
Durrell of Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Daloa, Côte d’Ivoire.
Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Senckenberg Museum for Natural History Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany.
International Institute Zittau, Technische Universität Dresden, Zittau, Germany.
Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.
Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.
Independent consultant, Kampala, Uganda.
Great Apes Survival Partnership, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
School of the Environment, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, and Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.

Science Advances, 3 Apr 2024, Vol 10, Issue 14. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0335

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