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WWF Guianas gives $5M for reclamation site at Mahdia

Feb 10, 2010 News

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guianas says it has reached an agreement with miners for $5M to develop a model reclamation site at Mahdia.
The agreement, which comes in the midst of vehement disagreement between miners and government over new mining reforms being studied, will see the model being used to create awareness and stimulate robust approaches to mine site reclamation by both private and governmental institutions. The agreement will be signed today.
A statement from the WWF Fund yesterday said that the grant for the project is provided under the WWF Guianas Sustainable Natural Resources Management Project 2007 – 2011 which is funded by the Dutch Global Environmental Facilities (DGIS), French Global Environmental Fund (FFEM) and WWF- NL.
The environmental body noted that mining is an activity which results in denuded forest lands and severely degraded soils.
“The soils of mined out sites usually undergo extensive damage, primarily because of the method of mining used- hydraulicking. Soils, apart from providing structural support for plants and a medium via which nutrients are stored for use by plants, are also an effective sink for carbon storage.”
Degraded forest lands lose large amounts of carbon through erosion and leaching, resulting from their exposure to wind and rain. Reclamation of disturbed and degraded mine lands can lead to increase in biomass productivity, improved soil quality and the enhancement of the soil’s capacity to store carbon. In addition, the biological integrity of the ecosystems over time is restored and with this the species diversity of the area. With the re-establishment of vegetative cover, less common plant and animal species are encouraged to re-colonize the area.
WWF noted, however, the reclamation process brings with it a need for a new set of skills; skills that are not necessarily taught at mining or other institutes.
“To date, companies operating locally have solved the skill gap by employing foreign specialists in the necessary disciplines, leaving the mining professionals to get on with the job of digging out the ore. The small to medium scale sector is not financially capable of recruiting these expensive specialists to assist with rehabilitation works and as such the project is timely.”
The organization noted that mine site reclamation is a relatively new area to Guyana but laws governing the mining sector support it.
“However, the enforcement of these regulations has been lax. With the increase in mining activities fueled by the increase in the price of gold, more forest lands are being cleared to facilitate mining with very little or no rehabilitation work being done.”
The Mahdia model project therefore would advance the necessity for reclaiming mined out sites by demonstrating simple but cost-effective methods for doing so.

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