Investigating Changes Driving Cumulative Impacts on Native Vegetation in Mining Regions in the Northeastern Brazilian Amazon

Developing conservation strategies to mitigate cumulative impacts requires the understanding of historic land use and land cover changes at the regional scale. By using a multisensory and multitemporal approach, we identified the major changes driving cumulative impacts on native vegetation in northeastern Amazon. Comparing two regions, one with mining as the key driver and another where mining is associated with other industrial activities (cellulose), we explore the land use and land cover historic dynamics and derive implications for the assessment of cumulative impacts. Transitions of forest cover to pastureland, silviculture, and urban expansion were mapped in detail over a 20-year period, revealing that silviculture growth cleared more forests than pastureland expansion when associated with pulp mill activities and kaolin mining. In contrast, in a region with gold and iron mining, pastureland expansion was more relevant, clearing mainly areas surrounding new roads. This research shows that the interplay of major mining and industrial investments can produce cumulative losses of native vegetation, depending on the associated industries and infrastructure required for the project development. Our findings emphasize that the definition of spatial and temporal boundaries for the assessment of cumulative impacts must consider different trends in impact accumulation and changes in their spatial distribution over time.