Mitigating the environmental impact of artisanal quarrying: consideration of awareness and incentives: a report for DFID/ITDG. (ADD029).
Abstract
Small-scale artisanal mining has an important role to play in developing countries as it utilises often abundant available labour while requiring only limited amounts of less than abundant capital. However, enthusiasm for this sector of the economy is tempered by a variety of problems by which it is so often plagued; wasted mineral resources, poor health and safety, and ennvironmental degradation. The process of extracting stone by quarrying is merely physical and, consequently, this sub-sector of the mining industry is not plagued by the pollutant problems associated with chemical processing as experienced by the mining of metals and mineral. However, stone quarrying does have numerous environmental effects that are nonetheless serious. In the area around Nairobi in Kenya small-scale quarrying there is 'a blatant disregard for the environment', Savery (1997). The unregulated destruction of the natural environment is not compatible with sustainable development. However a process of lessening the environmental impact of small-scale artisanal quarrying is not easy. This paper begins by examining the environmental legislative framework in both India and Kenya. The major environmental effects of mining are then examined. The following section then examines the main recommendations drawn from the project papers. The next section has a brief examination of environmental policy before environment management systems and their applicability to small-scale artisanal stone quarrying is examined. The paper then concludes with a summary of the findings of this paper.
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