Regulating Mine Land Reclamation in Developing Countries
the case of China
曹霞
【摘要】 Despite being an important economic activity, mining causes substantial damage to the environment worldwide, which, in particular, has dramatically contributed to land degradation. Effective reclamation is therefore necessary, and if conducted properly, can restore scarred land to its former state, and support additional economic activities post-mining. This paper surveys the policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks in place for mine land reclamation in developing countries where environmental frameworks are generally piecemeal and less efficient, and there is minimal regulatory pressure for reclamation. Using a case study of China, the paper examines possible solutions for facilitating improved mine land reclamation in developing countries.
【全文】
1. Introduction
Mining is traditionally regarded as the world’s oldest and the most important activity after agriculture. Throughout history, mining activities have made tremendous and significant contributions to the world’s civilization. However, all these benefits have been offset by considerable negative impacts on the environment and on the health and safety of mine workers and mining communities.[1] As a result of the growing public awareness of these costs and of the challenge of sustainable development, societies around the world are increasingly expecting the mining industry to apply higher standards of environmental, safety and community management to all projects through the application of modern technologies and management tools (Blinker, 1999). On the other hand, “mining companies look to governments to provide clear, stable, and transparent frameworks for environmental management—especially with regard to monitoring and enforcement systems” to seek increased foreign investment (Weber-Fahr et al., 2002). Hence, governments of both developed and developing countries are endeavoring to enhance their national environmental policy and there is a trend towards increasingly stringent environmental requirements to be imposed on mining activities.
It has been widely recognized since the late 20th century that reclamation is a desirable and necessary remedy “to return the mined areas to an acceptable environmental condition, whether for resumption of the former land use or for a new use” (Redgwell, 1992), and to allow such lands to achieve their optimum economic value as much as possible (Bastida, 2002). In addition, mine land reclamation is also generally considered as an ongoing program because of progressively growing environmental effects as a mine evolves through the different stages of development (Walde, 1993). Mining is a temporary use of land and; mine land reclamation is clearly justified from the perspective of sustainable development. Thus it has become important part of the sustainable development strategy in many countries (Gao et al., 1998).
Like developed countries, developing countries have responded to this consensus by either formulating new policies and legislation or by making major modifications to existing regulations, along with institutional reforms. While these initiatives have played a remarkable role in rehabilitating derelict land, there remains considerable scope for further improvement. China has made a comparatively late start in mine land reclamation and currently has low reclamation rates.[2] The country faces similar legislative and regulatory challenges as other developing countries. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to address these challenges, to examine the reasons for the lack of progress and discuss possible alternatives for improved policy, legislation and regulatory effectiveness for not only China, but also for developing countries as a whole to enhance their mine land reclamation performance.
This article is organized as follows. The next part briefly describes main objectives of mine land reclamation drawing on existing literature. The subsequent section identifies the major challenges facing developing countries in mine land reclamation with an emphasis on legislation and institutional frameworks. A case study of China is then presented to illustrate more clearly how these challenges have constrained efficient mine land reclamation. The article concludes by outlining some alternative approaches that could lead to improved legislation and regulatory frameworks for mine land reclamation in developing countries.
2. Main objectives of mine land reclamation
Since the Brundtland Commission first put forward the concept of sustainable development, all industries have been seeking ways to perform in a more sustainable manner. The mining sector is no exception. The extraction of minerals can have a number of impacts, topographical, ecotoxicological and socio-economic, from operation to closure. To achieve sustainability, the mining industry should pursue “the combination of enhanced socio-economic growth and development, and improved environmental protection and pollution control” (Hilson and Murck, 2000). Mine land reclamation constitutes an integral component part of mine sustainability, which is, as Morrey (1999) explains, to achieve “physical stability, waste management and acceptable land use”, and as Kahn et al. (2001) add, to improve resilience, productivity, biodiversity of the land. The amelioration sometimes is both technically and economically difficult; therefore, the realistic objectives of land reclamation may differ significantly from the ideal goal of site rehabilitation. However, in the context of long-term land sustainability, reclamation may provide the potential for ecological adjustment or for practical reuse of mined land. Specifically, the principal objectives include but are not limited to the following (partly adopted from Warhurst and Noronha, 1999; Morrey, 1999):
l To eliminate health and safety hazards (e.g. dismantling all facilities and structures threatening human health and safety);
l To restore impacted land and water resources (e.g. revegetating progressively and stabilizing residues to reduce potential of acid mine drainage or water contamination);
l To eliminate off-site environmental impacts (e.g. cleaning up sites to conform to the community’s surrounding landscape);
l To ensure that post-mining land has a viable self-sustaining future with respect to both environmental and socio-economic benefits (e.g. developing publicly owned land for recreation, historic purposes, conservation purposes, or open space benefits, or for constructing public facilities in communities);
