NATURAL RESOURCES

Land & Food

LAND / SOIL DEGRADATION

Mismatch: land quality vs. land use

Mechanisms

Physical

Crusting, erosion, desertification, anaerobism, pollution

Chemical

Acidification , leaching, decreased cation retention capacity,

fertility decline

Biological

Biomass
Biodiversity decline

FORESTS
Intercepts rain water
Filters toxins
Wealth of biodiversity
Moderate air temperature
Carbon sequestration
Check Erosion
Ecotourism

DEFORESTATION

Causes Case study

Economy tight spots
Rain

forests: 4,26,372 sp.

587,000km2 lost in less
than one decade (>30%)
Carbon sequestration 1.11011 metric tonnes of
carbon
Brazil

Development of
Amazon basin - Grand
Carajas project

THE COST OF FANCY YELLOW

METAL
On the night of January 30, 2000, a dam holding
contaminated waters burst at a mining works in
Bozinta Mare, Romania, and 100,000 cubic
meters of cyanide-contaminated water

Baia Mare Cyanide Spill

Journey of the spill entered the Sasar River and made

its way into the Somes River, which crosses into
Hungary, then entered the Tisa River and the
Danube. Entered Hungary and thenYugoslavia
(Serbia) further it flowed into the Danube and so
returned to Romania, finally entering the Black Sea.

Black Hills, USA

HUNT OIL TEXAS BASED OIL COMPANY

Hunt Oil
A major fundraiser for President Bush, known to have
close ties to the Bush administration.
The crisis

Lot

76 - the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.

The 400,000 hectare reserve was created in 2002 to protect the
flora and fauna of the area, as well as to safeguard watersheds
of particular importance to indigenous groups in the region.

Despite its protected status, in 2006 the Peruvian

government granted concessions within the reserve to
two oil companies, Hunt Oil and the Spanish company
Repsol

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
REPORT HUNT OIL
Claims that, for now, they simply want to poke around
in the woods to see if theres anything of interest to
them.
What does this innocent-sounding poking around in
the woods involve ?

According

to their own estimates

Blazing some 300 miles of seismic testing trails through
the trackless wilderness,
Detonating more than 12,000 explosive charges, and
Carving more than 100 helicopter landing pads out of the
virgin rainforest.

AVTAAR
Reality or fantasy....?

LOCAL UPRAISING
"The most vulnerable ecological and cultural
areas are now being invaded by seismic lines,
whose impacts are irreparable.
The area of intervention is one of very high
biological value from a worldwide perspective and
its surface and underground hydrological system
have great cultural significance for the
Harakmbut, which makes this a vital space for
the subsistence of not only the indigenous
communities, but the greater population of the
Amazon Basin,"

WEEKS AFTER BLOODSHED, AMERICAN

OIL MOVES INTO PERUVIAN AMAZON,
PUTTING RAINFOREST, POSSIBLE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE AT RISK Any day now, the bulldozers will be moving in as Texas-based
AUGUST 03, 2009

Hunt Oil Company with the full go-ahead of the Peruvian

government -- fires its first salvo in its assault against the
million-acre pristine rainforest wilderness of the little-known
and largely unexplored Amarakaeri Communal Reserve. By
the time you read this, the choppers will probably already be
here, womp-womping their way along the very edge of Manu
National Park to supply the seismic survey crews whacking
their way through the jungle and blowing off explosives to see
what riches lie below the surface. The local natives that the
reserve was created to protect, like so many before them,
are getting ready to have their lives irrevocably altered, and
are wondering how to react to this invasion.

Project in Peru, especially after five ruptures

along the pipeline route caused contaminant
spills onto the ancestral lands of indigenous
peoples and into the pristine rivers and streams
through the region.
The company that built the leaky pipeline had
cut corners to avoid some $90 million in costs

CASE STUDIES ON DEFORESTATION

& MINING IN AMAZON BASIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOYRMRqfr
PQ&safety_mode=true&noredirect=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2d5d1Z6AFH4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=F5bDHpQCcqM&feature=related
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0803hambone_peru.html

Other causes for deforestation:

Commercial

logging
Intensive agriculture
Mining

Effects of deforestation:
Desiccation

Desertification
Urbanization

- Heat island effect

Green house effect

FOOD SECURITY
Conditions

Availability
Access

Utilization

Modern
Soil

agriculture

erosion
Surface run off
Water logging & salinity
Fertilizers
Pesticides

GLOBAL UTILIZATION

INDIAN SCENARIO

ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES &

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Practice:

Crop rotation
Alternate Planting times
Agroforestry
Intercropping

Avoid Monoculture

Crossbreeding Selection
Variation helps cross fertilization to evolve more tolerant
varieties

Organic farming:

Is an ecological production management system that

promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and
soil biological activity
USES BIOFERTILISERS & BIOPESTICIDES resulting
in decreased chemical input in soils

Genetic engineering

Producing new varieties of crop species

MINING
The

act of extracting ores

Types:
Metallic

Non-metallic

Formation
In

exhaustible and Non

renewable
Role of microbes
Biomining

Thiobacillus

ferrooxidans

MINING
& CONCERNS
OPEN
PIT mining

Advantages
Less

expensive than underground

mining.

Better
New

Disadvantages

ventilation (open-air).

mines must follow much

stricter environmental, safety and
health guidelines

HUGE footprint
Enormous waste rock piles
Re mediation is extremely costly and
time consuming. Groundwater
restoration can be extremely costly.
Mine workers and nearby
communities health can be
compromised due to dust, noise and
radon exposure

 Disadvantages
Deep Shaft mining
Expensive.
Advantages
Potential to seriously impact
Has a smaller surface footprint.
local aquifers and expensive to
Less waste rock.
remediate.
Advances in mining technology
In old underground mines,
(better ventilation systems,
possible robotic mining) and safety dust, radon and diesel fumes
were a serious threat to miners
monitoring limits many of the
health because of poor
radiation/health issues.
ventilation

Acid Mine drainage

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF
MINING

Surface

water or groundwater that is highly acidic due to oxidation of

sulfide minerals at a mineral mine.

Erosion
Sedimentation
Acid rain
Dust storms
Appropriation of land belonging to locals

Acid mine drain

Black Lung disease

- Pneumoconiosis

Indias Global position in Mineral wealth

India Chromite, Barytes

Second
Coal , Lignite, Bauxite
third
Iron, Steel Fourth
Mica - Eleventh

BOUGAINVILLE COPPER MINE - PANGUNA

Solomon

islands
Compensation
Jaba river
Most serious conflicts of 1990s

Solutions for sustainability

Usage
Long

economy

life of finishes goods

Re-use

& re-cycle

Efficient

recovery methods

Alternates/substitutes

Mining Foot print..

THE LARGEST UNDERWATER SINKHOLE IS

THE GREAT BLUE HOLE, A POPULAR DIVING
SITE, AT LIGHTHOUSE REEF, BELIZE, IN THE
CARIBBEAN. THE HOLE IS CIRCULAR IN
SHAPE, OVER 300 METRES (984 FT) ACROSS
AND 125 METRES (410 FT) DEEP, AND WAS
CREATED WHEN A LIMESTONE CAVE'S ROOF
COLLAPSED

GUATEMALA 2010 A SINKHOLE WAS FORMED

SUDDENLY IN GUATEMALA IN MAY 2010, WHERE
TORRENTIAL RAINS FROM TROPICAL STORM AGATHA
AND A BAD DRAINAGE SYSTEM WERE BLAMED FOR
CREATING A SINKHOLE THAT SWALLOWED A THREE
STORY BUILDING AND A HOUSE. THIS SINKHOLE
MEASURED APPROXIMATELY 66 FEET (20 M) WIDE
AND 100 FEET (30 M) DEEP. A SIMILAR HOLE HAD
FORMED NEARBY IN FEBRUARY 2007.

CANADIAN GARDEN AREA RECLAIMED FROM A

QUARRY
Butchart
Gardens on Vancouver Island, Canada
Previously mined limestone on the land for the Portland Cement
Company
Reclamation efforts:
Filled the quarry with topsoil
The fifty-acre Sunken Garden transformed into a Japanese
Garden, Italian Garden, and Rose Garden.
Now serves as the premier garden on the West Coast,
admitting over one million visitors a year

AT THE FOSSIL TRACE GOLF CLUB COLORADO

The Perfect Clay Pits in Golden, Colorado produced large amounts of
clay in the 1900's. During mining, many fossils emerged from the walls
of the pit. Lagoons also appeared, created when mining pits filled with
water. After mining completed, the landscape of the pit created a perfect
setting for a golf course. The lagoons served as water hazards, the fossil
walls create a landscape that only exists at the Fossil Trace Golf Club,
and the topography creates a challenging course layout. The Club
would not exist if people did not take the time to reclaim the site,
creating something useful out of disturbed land.