Philippine Mining at the National to Catchment Scale: from Legacy Impacts to Sustainable Futures

菲律宾金属/非金属资源丰富；2019年出口额为44亿美元，主要是铜、铝和镍。在900万公顷具有高矿产潜力的土地中，只有8%被采矿物业覆盖；因此，菲律宾的采矿活动预计将在未来增长。河流集水区是受采矿活动影响最大的地区：在排干矿区的河流沿线普遍存在淤积问题，在尾矿坝坍塌期间，河流也是泥沙和污染物的管道。采矿影响可能会持续很长时间，远远超过作业寿命，在对环境和邻近社区仍然有害的遗留地点可以看到这一点。我们的愿景是建立一个由研究人员、从业者和政策制定者组成的快速反应的跨学科网络，以制定一项战略性的大笔赠款提案，重点关注遗产开采以及污染物的命运、运输和影响。在现有英国-菲律宾合作研究的基础上，该项目旨在制定一项建议，在国家至流域范围内实现基于地貌和生物地球化学的综合方法，使流域管理从业者能够补救遗留的金属采矿影响，并保护生态系统和人类免受当前和未来采矿活动产生的金属矿山污染物的潜在负面影响。在这一阶段，战略性大额赠款提案将侧重于以下关键研究问题：(1)菲律宾河流流域遗留和当代采矿活动对环境的影响(污染、森林砍伐、侵蚀、沉积、生态系统、人类感知)是什么？(2)可以采取哪些环境和社会可接受的方法来补救，恢复和管理受遗留采矿影响的集水区？(3)我们如何优化集水区规模的数值模拟，以考虑到新的采矿和气候变化？(4)如何在社区参与下制定菲律宾集水区管理计划，并将其与可持续采矿实践相结合，以确保河流系统现在和未来保持良好的环境和生态系统状况？

The Philippines is metallic/non-metallic resource rich; exports were USD4.4billion in 2019, primarily copper, aluminium, and nickel. Only 8% of 9 million hectares of land with high mineral potential is covered by mining tenements; mining in the Philippines is thus expected to grow in the future. River catchments are the most significantly affected by mining activities: siltation problems are common along rivers draining mining areas, and rivers also act as conduits for sediment and contaminants during tailings dam failures. Mining impacts can persist well beyond operational lifetimes, seen at legacy sites that remain hazardous to the environment and adjacent communities. Our vision is to establish a fast-responding, interdisciplinary network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers to develop a strategic large grant proposal focused on legacy mining and the fate, transport and impact of contaminants. Building on existing UK-Philippines collaborative research, this project aims to develop a proposal to realise a combined geomorphological and biogeochemical based approach, at national- to catchment-scales, to enable catchment management practitioners to remediate legacy metal mining impacts, and protect ecosystems and humans from the potentially negative effects of metal mine contaminants arising from current and future mining activities. At this stage, the strategic large grant proposal will focus upon the following key research questions: (1) What are the environmental impacts (contamination, deforestation, erosion, sedimentation, ecosystem, human perception) of legacy and contemporary mining activities in Philippine river catchments? (2) What environmentally- and socially-acceptable approaches can be adopted to remediate, rehabilitate and manage catchments affected by legacy mining? (3) How can we optimise catchment-scale numerical modelling to take into account new mines and climate change? (4) How can Philippine catchment management plans be developed with community participation and integrated with sustainable mining practice to ensure that river systems maintain good environmental and ecosystem status now and in the future?