Functional and Ecological Status of FCF Mine Rehabilitated Areas: Baseline Study

Duration: April – September 2022

The extraction and utilization of minerals must adhere with sustainable development with due regard for the strong environmental and social focus derived from the legal and administrative framework governing the minerals industry under the country’s various laws and policies such as the RA No. 7942 and the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

Measures of success and progress of rehabilitation efforts in mining, forestry and other developments that disturb landscapes are necessary to detect ecosystem degradation changes in early stages when management interventions are most effective, and to monitor land use over long-time periods (decades) to detect change.

Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) is a monitoring procedure that uses field-assessed indicators to evaluate the biogeochemical functioning of landscapes at the hillslope or watershed level. It combines soil surface assessment with grass cover, tree and shrub cover, litter cover, cryptogam cover, degree of crust brokenness, erosion type (wind or water), rills and gullies, deflation (dunes), deposited materials, surface roughness, soil aggregate stability, and soil texture.

Given LFA’s reliability, objective information, compatibility with established methods and systems and successful application in the Philippines, the 5-year Research Program, aims to assess the current functional and Ecological status of FCF mine rehabilitation areas and monitor its progress and development into a self-sustaining land-use capability that is proximate to its pre-disturbance status or desired landscape using LFA as primary tool.