Mining poses significant and potentially underestimated risks to tropical forests worldwide. In Brazil’s Amazon, mining drives deforestation far beyond operational lease boundaries, yet the full extent of these impacts is unknown and thus neglected in environmental licensing. Here we quantify mining-induced deforestation and investigate the aspects of mining operations, which most likely contribute. We find mining significantly increased Amazon forest loss up to 70 km beyond mining lease boundaries, causing 11,670 km2 of deforestation between 2005 and 2015. This extent represents 9% of all Amazon forest loss during this time and 12 times more deforestation than occurred within mining leases alone. Pathways leading to such impacts include mining infrastructure establishment, urban expansion to support a growing workforce, and development of mineral commodity supply chains. Mining-induced deforestation is not unique to Brazil; to mitigate adverse impacts of mining and conserve tropical forests globally, environmental assessments and licensing must considered both on- and off-lease sources of deforestation.
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机译：采矿对全世界的热带森林构成了重大且可能被低估的风险。在巴西的亚马逊地区，采矿业造成的森林砍伐远远超出了经营租赁的范围，但是这些影响的全部范围尚不得而知，因此在环境许可中被忽略了。在这里，我们对采矿导致的森林砍伐进行了量化，并调查了最有可能做出贡献的采矿作业的各个方面。我们发现采矿活动使亚马逊森林的损失大大增加，超出了采矿租约的界限，达到了70 km，在2005年至2015年间造成了11,670 km 2 的森林砍伐。这一程度代表了这段时间亚马逊森林损失的9％和12％比仅在采矿租约中发生的森林砍伐要多十倍。导致此类影响的途径包括采矿基础设施建设，城市扩张以支持不断增长的劳动力以及矿产商品供应链的发展。采矿引起的森林砍伐并非巴西独有。为了减轻采矿业的不利影响并在全球范围内保护热带森林，环境评估和许可必须同时考虑森林砍伐的租赁来源和租赁来源。
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