Abstract
Protected areas are widely regarded as a cornerstone of global forest conservation, yet growing mineral demand intensifies mining pressure on them. Here, we present a global assessment of mining-induced forest loss within and beyond protected areas from 2001 to 2020. We find that approximately 11% (~1372 km2) of global mining-induced forest loss occurs within protected areas, with this proportion increasing to ~19% during 2016–2020. Furthermore, ~27% (544) of mines associated with forest loss within protected areas remain active throughout the study period. Mining impacts also extend beyond protected area boundaries, where forest loss in the surrounding 10-km buffer zones (~4113 km2) is nearly three times that observed within protected areas. Temporal analyses further reveal that mining increasingly affects forests with higher biomass density over time. These findings demonstrate growing mining pressure on protected forests and highlight the need to mitigate impacts both within and beyond protected area boundaries.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of the Academy of Eco-Civilization Development for Jing-Jin-Ji Megalopolis, Tianjin Normal University, the Advanced Laser Technology Laboratory of Anhui Province, and the Institute of Land Reclamation and Ecological Restoration, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing).
Funding
H.R. discloses support for the research of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42507624). Y.C. discloses support for the research of this work from the Academy of Finland project “Bright-Biotic Damage Mapping with Ultrawide Spectral Range LiDARs for Sustainable Forest Growth” (No. 353363). T.H. discloses support for the research of this work from the State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser Technology (No. SKL2023KF03). The other authors declare no relevant funding.
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Ren, H., Hu, Y., He, T. et al. Global mining has undermined forest conservation within and beyond protected areas.
Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74859-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74859-3
Source: Ecology - nature.com
