Rehabilitate forests, miners urged

Business Reporter
MINING companies have been urged to redress environmental degradation caused by their mining activities.

In many African countries, mining takes precedence over other economic activities such as farming, but experts warned that governments must closely monitor if mining companies follow their environmental impact assessment to redress some of the effects caused by mining.

Addressing journalists who virtually attended a media roundtable on challenges and opportunities in forest management for sustainable development in Africa in the context of climate change last week, Dr Lizzie Mujuru, a senior lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies at Bindura University of Science Education said there was need to trace if companies were doing what they would have promised.

“Mining companies must do genuine environmental and social impact assessments. In some cases, they do not become genuine. If they are genuine they must outline how they are going to redress environmental degradation,” she said.

Dr Mujuru said governments must strictly monitor companies to ensure that they comply. Addressing the same meeting, Dr Emmanuel Nzunda from Sokone University of Agriculture in Tanzania said in some countries such as South Africa, mining companies were given strict conditions to ensure they re-grow forests that they would have destroyed during mining.

He however, admitted that for many countries in Africa, it was difficult because there is always a tendency to promote economic activities at the expense of protecting the forests and the environment. The roundtable was organised by the African Forest Forum (AFF), a pan-African non-governmental organisation with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.