Sem 1 Exam - Land Cover Management S3 Flashcards
Local Strategy - Beerliar Wetlands
What? Who Runs? Purpose?
- An example of a local strategy is the Beerliar Wetlands, which is a range of wetlands in the swales of the ancient dunes of the Swan Coastal Plain in SW WA
- The Cockburn Wetlands Centre established in 1993, is a non-profit community based organisation with its purpose to restore and conserve the Beerliar Wetlands
Beeliar Impacts
What they are?
- The Beeliar Wetlands have become seriously degraded through urban and agricultural practices and was previously used as a landfill site and dairy farm.
- Through their education program and replanting efforts, the centre plans to address the following LCC issues: Soil erosion and degradation/loss pf biodiversity
How does Beeliar address the impacts
Soil Erosion and Degradation:
- The wetlands centre addresses soil erosion and degradation through replacing activity in previously cleared areas. There is a number of revegetation sites around Bibra Lakes such as the Horse Paddock Swamp.
- These sites are used for community planting events where 8000 to 10,000 plants are planted every year to help make up for previously degraded land
- This addresses LCC as land that was previously affected is being rehabilitated back to original or stronger condition than before it was affected through these events
Loss of Biodiversity:
- Addresses loss of biodiversity through replanting local native flora species which are endemic to the area, thus increasing the likelihood of species survival. These replanted areas have become new homes to various fauna such as: Black Cockatoos, Brown Bandicoots, Microbats etc.
- This reinstates biodiversity into these wetland areas as habitats being newly built provides new ecosystems to flourish as Fauna arrives
Regional Strategy - Alcoa
What? Who? Key Objective?
- Alcoa Mining group is a global industry leader in the production of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium.
- Alcoa has built a legacy of innovations and practices that have led to efficient, safe, sustainable and stronger communities.
- Alcoa’s key environmental objective is to restore 100% of the species richness in the native forest one year after rehabilitation, to make sure the land is optimally preserved.
Alcoa impacts
Alcoa addresses:
- loss of habitat/biodiversity
- water pollution
How does Alcoa address impacts
Loss of habitat:
- Pre-Mining surveys - Before mining can begin surveys are conducted to find out exactly what species are growing where and which areas are affected by dieback. This allows areas home to endangered species like: Black Cockatoos to be conserved
Water pollution:
- Protecting drinking water supply - This includes minimising activities adjacent to water storage areas through mapping water ways etc. This blah blah
Sustainability
Meeting the needs of current and future generations through environmental, social and economic adaptation
In order to properly evaluate Alcoa’s sustainability program these three factors must be taken into account
Social Positive - Staff Diversity
- Alcoa recognise that there is strength in diversity, as they aim to build inclusive and diverse work team
- As a result of these efforts they were named in the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, as they received a score of 90 on the Human Rights Campaign Index
- Alcoa also has an 18.4% female workforce, with a 36.6% increase in hires of underrepresented people
- These evidently show the social positives of Alcoa’s business as they make sure diversity is a key focus within their employees, as a variety of opinions are heard and people are given a fairer opportunity in the field of the mines
Social Negative - Displacement of Indigenous Land
Alcoa came to Juruti, Para State, Brazil, in 2000 with big plans to mine for bauxite. Land rights owners argued the mine would be a disaster for the environment, traditional livelihoods and culture
The mine was going to consume 10,500 Hectares of primary Amazon Forest and suck 133,407 gallons of water per hour from the Amazon. These plans would of displaced 100’s of 1000’s of people in these surrounding indigenous areas and destroy the ecosystems in these forests - contributing to climate change
Due to these staggering negative implications is what cause this operation to be shut down as the local indigenous people protested accordingly.
This shows Alcoas socially unsustainable side as their greed for wealth shows their values of putting their mine sites above conserving indigenous land and affecting the people living in the areas
Economic positive - Improved Working Conditions
While environmental progress is important to Alcoa, the safety and health of their employees continues to be their overarching focus.
In 2022, they extensively reviewed their corporate safety and health systems to improve critical risk management
They have made progress at lowering incident rates, including a 17% decrease in fatality and severe injury/illness potential compared to 2021
Also have developed new technology, such as micro-sleep detection to make sure overly fatigued workers are not working
These improved working conditions boosts their economic growth overtime as less workers are getting injured so less time they are taking off, and less they have to pay in accident claims etc.
This also increases productivity in workplace which contributes again to economic growth
Economic Negative - Recent Job Displacement
Alcoa inc in 2023 revealed its plans to curtail its Kwinana Refinery, which impacted 100s of employees
Alcoa said that the company will downsize from 800 to 250 workers by its third quarter, with numbers to reduce to 50 by 2050
This job displacement is costly to hundreds of of people who have been left economically stranded by Alcoa after a sudden loss of their emploment
This also impacts workers still working at the refinery are their job security remains up in the air with further laying offs to occur overtime, leaving them anxious about their economic stability during a global housing crisis
Environmental positive - Restoring and Preserving Ecosystems
One of Alcoas environmental priorities is to restore ecosystems which may have been impacted by their operations.
They also prioritise locations with impoundments to work towards compliance with Global Industry Standards and Tailing Management (GISTM)
These processes help to preserve ecosystems that may become affected by their mine sites such as in the Perth Hills which are home to the Black Cockatoos
In 2022 their carbon reduction efforts included work on increasing the percentage of renewable energy powering aluminium production. This reduction of carbon reduces contribution to global warming which therefore mitigates Climate Change
Environmental negative - Habitat loss and water pollution
In February, it was revealed that water from Perth’s dam could be rendered undrinkable for years due to Alcoa mining, potentially causing water restrictions
Alcoa also mined in hillier areas, digging large pits, and leaving land unrehabilitated, which makes sediment runoff after heavy rain likely
This impacted the habitats of small mammals such as possums leaving them stranded with low chance of survival
Alcoa has also been given a month to reduce their risk of contaminated water “Forever Chemicals” PFAS overflowing in a Willowdale Mine inland of Bunbury
This caused significant impact to nearby aquatic ecosystems
Economic sustainability
Refers to practices that support long term economic growth for current and future generations
Social sustainability
Specifying and managing both positive and negative impacts which affect people and their lives
