Beyond canaries in coal mines: Co-occurrence of Andean mining concessions and migratory birds

Abstract

Spatial planning and decision-support tools facilitate the consideration of socioecological tradeoffs associated with extractive activities, but insufficient data resources often limit their application. Focusing on birds and mining concessions in the Northern Andes, we illustrate how publicly-available data can be used in spatial prioritization tools to identify where concessions have the potential to impact 22 species of Neotropical migratory birds. Concessions covered 11% of the land area of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and disproportionately occurred within important areas for migratory birds in Colombia and Ecuador, but not Peru. eBird data showed that one-quarter of avian species, including the Olive-sided Flycatcher, Cerulean Warbler, and Canada Warbler, had >10% of their global populations on concession land during the non-breeding season. More worrisome, species of greater conservation importance and with larger population declines (1974–2014) were most likely to co-occur with mining. Our approach highlights how public biodiversity data can be used to predict, avoid, or mitigate potential ecological impacts from extractive activities.