- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
Satellite images show deforestation toll of Indonesia mines
More than 700,000 hectares of forest in Indonesia have been cleared for mining since 2001, including large tracts of primary forest, a new analysis using satellite data has found.
The TreeMap, a conservation start-up, used high-resolution imagery from several satellites and two decades of data from the long-running Landsat programme to map mines and related infrastructure and track deforestation.
It estimates that mining -- including pits, processing facilities, tailings areas and roads -- resulted in the clearing of 721,000 hectares (7,210 square kilometres) of forest between 2001 and 2023.
An estimated 150,000 hectares of that was primary forest, areas with high carbon stock and tall trees that include intact old growth, according to the analysis released this week.
The group's Nusantara Atlas shows the striking disappearance of forest cover in time-lapse sequences as mines and associated infrastructure are developed.
The mines were identified using a combination of "visual interpretation and machine learning", explained David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap.
"Open-pit mines are easily identified... by their concentric lines of benches cut into the pit sides for coal mines, or by their tendency to be located along river banks, for gold," he explained.
All types of mines also have distinctive "spectral signatures" -- a measurement of energy -- that are characteristic of bare land areas and are easily detectable, he added.
The group cross-referenced their findings with official maps of mining concessions, local media articles and NGO reports.
Using historical satellite images also allowed them to detect now-abandoned mines that have become overgrown.
The impact from coal mining was by far the largest, accounting for around half of all the deforestation tracked, followed by gold, tin and nickel.
And while the data showed a peak in deforestation in 2013, the problem has begun growing again in recent years.
By 2023, mining was linked to an annual loss of nearly 10,000 hectares of primary forest, Gaveau said.
Indonesia's environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the analysis.
The government's latest public figures, which are not broken down by cause, say over 73,000 hectares of forest area was lost in 2021-22, with more than 104,000 hectares of total deforestation that year, including "non-forest area".
Deforestation linked to mining still falls far short of the forest loss caused by palm oil and wood plantations.
But it is an area of growing concern, with Indonesia's reliance on coal increasing and the country looking to expand exploitation of its nickel reserves.
Indonesia has the world's largest reserves of highly sought-after nickel, a crucial component for the batteries used in electric vehicles.
A 2022 study found that 80 percent of global forest loss linked to mining occurred in just four countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana and Suriname.
Indonesia was by far the worst affected however, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the global mining-linked forest loss tracked in the study.
G.Stevens--AMWN