Mining in New Caledonia: environmental stakes and restoration opportunities

New Caledonia is a widely recognised marine and terrestrial biodiversity hot spot. However, this unique environment is under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Major threats are related to land cover change and include fire, urban sprawling and mining. Resulting habitat loss and fragmentation end up...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science and pollution research international 2015-04, Vol.22 (8), p.5592-5607
Main Authors: Losfeld, Guillaume, L’Huillier, Laurent, Fogliani, Bruno, Jaffré, Tanguy, Grison, Claude
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
Anthropogenic factors
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Biodegradation, Environmental
Biodiversity
Biodiversity and Ecology
Biodiversity hot spots
Botanics
Catalysis
Combining Phytoextraction and Ecological Catalysis: an Environmental
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecological
ecological restoration
Ecology, environment
Ecosystems
Ecotoxicology
Environment
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental economics
Environmental Health
Environmental Pollutants - analysis
Environmental restoration
Environmental Sciences
Ethic and Economic Opportunity
Flora
Flowers & plants
Genomes
Geology
habitat destruction
Habitat fragmentation
Habitat loss
Islands
Lagoons
land cover
Life Sciences
Metals, Heavy - analysis
Metals, Heavy - metabolism
Mining
Mining - methods
New Caledonia
Nickel
Plants - metabolism
rivers
Sediment transport
Soil erosion
Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy
Terrestrial ecosystems
Vegetal Biology
Waste Water Technology
Water flow
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:New Caledonia is a widely recognised marine and terrestrial biodiversity hot spot. However, this unique environment is under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Major threats are related to land cover change and include fire, urban sprawling and mining. Resulting habitat loss and fragmentation end up in serious erosion of the local biodiversity. Mining is of particular concern due to its economic significance for the island. Open cast mines were exploited there since 1873, and scraping out soil to access ores wipes out flora. Resulting perturbations on water flows and dramatic soil erosion lead to metal-rich sediment transport downstream into rivers and the lagoon. Conflicting environmental and economic aspects of mining are discussed in this paper. However, mining practices are also improving, and where impacts are inescapable ecological restoration is now considered. Past and ongoing experiences in the restoration of New Caledonian terrestrial ecosystems are presented and discussed here. Economic use of the local floristic diversity could also promote conservation and restoration, while providing alternative incomes. In this regard, Ecocatalysis, an innovative approach to make use of metal hyperaccumulating plants, is of particular interest.
ISSN:0944-1344
1614-7499
DOI:10.1007/s11356-014-3358-x