Mining triggers extensive additional deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa
Oscar Morton, Christopher G Bousfield, Prince Dégny Valé, Ieuan Lamb, Victor Maus, Robert G Bryant, David P Edwards · 2026
Read Mining triggers extensive additional deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa by Oscar Morton, Christopher G Bousfield, Prince Dégny Valé, Ieuan Lamb, Victor Maus, Robert G Bryant, David P Edwards (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13293856.txt.
Description
Oscar Morton and co-authors measure how much forest loss mining sets off beyond the pit itself across sub-Saharan Africa, in a 2026 analysis. Demand for African minerals is climbing fast, and mines clear land directly for pits, waste ponds, and heaps. Using continent-wide land-use data and a statistical method that compares mined and unmined areas over time, the team assessed more than sixteen thousand mines between 2001 and 2020.
Direct clearing totaled 187,000 hectares of dense forest. The wider effect dwarfed it: for each hectare cleared at the mine, about thirty-four more hectares vanished nearby within five years through farms, settlements, and roads that follow mining. Elevated clearing persisted up to twenty kilometers away a decade later. Cobalt and copper mines drove the largest extra losses, a warning for clean-energy supply chains.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Oscar Morton, Christopher G Bousfield, Prince Dégny Valé, Ieuan Lamb, Victor Maus, Robert G Bryant, David P Edwards |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 48 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |