Deforestación pasada por alto por las actividades mineras mundiales en el siglo XXI
Xiaoxin Zhang1, Bin Chen2,3, Jiafu An4,5
1Future Urbanity & Sustainable Environment (FUSE) Lab, Division of Landscape Architecture, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Nature communications
|December 21, 2025
Resumen
Las actividades mineras impulsan una deforestación y emisiones de carbono mundiales significativas, y la minería no registrada causa más de la mitad de la pérdida de bosques. Se necesita urgentemente una mejor monitorización y regulación para abordar estos impactos ambientales subestimados.
Área de la Ciencia:
- Ciencias Ambientales
- Silvicultura
- Ciencias Climáticas
Sus antecedentes:
- La minería es un motor significativo, aunque subestimado, de la deforestación mundial.
- Los inventarios incompletos de las actividades mineras ocultan la escala total de la pérdida de bosques y las emisiones de carbono.
- Las estimaciones previas de la deforestación inducida por la minería son probablemente sustancialmente inferiores a la realidad.
Objetivo del estudio:
- Crear un inventario mundial completo de la minería para cuantificar la deforestación directa y las emisiones de carbono asociadas.
- Evaluar la contribución de las actividades mineras a la pérdida natural de bosques entre 2001 y 2023.
- Destacar el papel de las actividades mineras no registradas en la deforestación y el cambio climático.
Principales métodos:
- Desarrollo de un inventario mundial de minería que abarca 236.028 áreas mineras.
- Evaluación de la precisión del inventario de minería en un 87,37%.
- Cuantificación de la deforestación directa y las emisiones de carbono forestal asociadas (CO2) de las actividades mineras.
Principales resultados:
- Las actividades mineras causaron 19.765 km² de deforestación y 0,75 Pg de emisiones de CO2 entre 2001 y 2023.
- La deforestación inducida por la minería es 2-3 veces superior a la estimada previamente.
- Más del 50% de la deforestación relacionada con la minería está vinculada a actividades mineras no registradas.
Conclusiones:
- El papel de la minería, especialmente las actividades informales y no registradas, en la deforestación mundial y el cambio climático está sustancialmente subestimado.
- Necesidad urgente de mejorar la monitorización y regulación de los impactos de la minería en el medio ambiente.
- Los hallazgos subrayan la conexión crítica entre las prácticas mineras y la dinámica de la cubierta forestal mundial.
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