Metal mining and natural protected areas in Mexico: Geographic overlaps and environmental implications

Because the high biodiversity of Mexico about 12% of the country's total area is included as a Natural Protected Areas (NPAs); however, in the last years, according to the official data, an astonishing number of mining concessions covering 28% of the total area of the country has been granted already. The objective of this work is to quantify the geographical overlap of mining concessions with the federal NPAs of Mexico including the exploration/exploitation status of minerals to be extracted. We use geo-referenced polygons of the NPAs and those of mining exploration and exploitation concessions until 2010 and calculated their overlap extension with the application of ArcView GIS 3.3 (ESRI; Redland, CA, U.S.A.). Our results showed that a total of 1609 mining concessions covering an area of 1,486,433 ha geographically overlaps with the NPAs. With the exception of Natural Monuments (NM), all the different categories of NPAs in Mexico showed mining concessions; 75% of Natural Resources Protection Area (NRPA); 63% of Biosphere Reserve (BR); 47% of Protected Area for Flora and Fauna (PAFF); 22% of Sanctuary (S); and 15% of National Park (NP). The impacts of metal mining activities on NPAs are not only limited to biodiversity and affectation to human communities, but they also have a radius of influence not yet evaluated since most of the NPAs have a special role in supplying watersheds and aquifers. Obviously, currently in Mexico a NPA decree does not represent an obstacle to megamining projects; in consequence, their real environmental impacts are underestimated. It is a priority to legally support canceling the mining concessions already granted in the NPAs and stop granting new ones in the future. In the proportion to which environmental authorities continue to openly accept mining concessions within the NPAs, through modifying management programs that allow these activities, they may cause a significant increase in rejections of local people toward the changes in management programs and on the promotion of new NPAs in Mexico.