Sustainable mined land reclamation: the pujada nickel case study

Abstract

Decision making is severely challenging in mined-land reclamation where multiple interests of various and often conflicting stakeholders should be satisfied. Thru the use of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA), sustainable options of reclaiming the mined land in manner that is environmentally sound, technically feasible, economically viable, socially acceptable, culturally sensitive and spiritually rooted are fully explored and considered. Multiple stakeholders like; the indigenous peoples, mining host communities, the non-government organization, the church, the mining company, the Mines Bureau, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the local government units were engaged in the study to determine their interests in mining reclamation. Having full appreciation of the stakeholders’ interests and proposed options, the Mine Rehabilitation Fund Committee and the Multi-partite Monitoring Team are confident that reclaiming the mined land thru the options-mix of Forestry and Botanical Park Development shall perform better and is more sustainable. The results of MCDA of the Pujada Nickel Project enabled the decision makers to have confidence that the blended options of Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA), Sloping Agro-forestry Land Technology (SALT) and Botanical Park Development in transforming the Pujada Nickel Mine shall satisfy the best interests of the multiple mining stakeholders.