🛠️Unveiling Environmental Threats with MineAlert-Africa

In November 2023, the Environmental Investigative Forum (EIF) launched MineAlert-Africa, a geo-journalism platform designed to expose and mitigate the biodiversity threats posed by mining licenses across over 21 African countries. This platform offers an unprecedented capability for journalists and researchers to quickly verify mining operations against the official boundaries of protected areas.

What’s the goal? By providing a snapshot of the current state and future historical data of mining activities, MineAlert-Africa aims to empower stakeholders in environmental preservation. 🌱

🔍 The Importance of Monitoring Mining Activities

Mining activities can significantly impact biodiversity, especially when they encroach upon protected areas. MineAlert-Africa addresses this issue by providing a transparent and accessible database that highlights these threats.

Why does this matter? This initiative underscores the critical need for data transparency in monitoring environmental impacts and encourages proactive measures to protect Africa’s diverse ecosystems. 🌳

How can increased transparency help in protecting vulnerable ecosystems?

🌿 Current Developments in Mining and Biodiversity

MineAlert-Africa stands as a crucial tool in the landscape of environmental journalism. It allows users to navigate through a comprehensive database of mining licenses and their geographical overlaps with protected areas.

Key takeaway: This platform is an extension of Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism’s #MineAlert tool, which has successfully tracked mining licenses across South Africa. By expanding this scope to the African continent, MineAlert-Africa enhances the capacity for cross-regional environmental investigations and collaborations. 🌍

What other regions could benefit from similar tools for monitoring environmental threats?

🔓 Open Data & Code: Promoting Transparency and Collaboration

MineAlert-Africa champions the use of open-source data and code, republishing geo-data under the "fair use" doctrine. The platform relies on the World Database of Protected Areas and data from relevant public authorities in each country.

Why it’s important: This approach ensures that the information remains accessible and encourages community engagement and transparency in environmental data sharing. You can explore the data and code on MineAlert-Africa. 📂