GMAP: From mined-out areas to mini-forests
MINED-OUT areas can still be rehabilitated through the government’s Greening mined-out areas in the Philippines (GMAP) program that adopted bioremediation, or the use of live microbes and plants as biological solutions to clean up and rehabilitate stressed environments.
Mined-out areas are devoid of plants due to many biotic and abiotic factors like the presence of residual heavy metals in the mining wastes. Along with barren lands, they can be converted into miniforests through bioremediation or “the cleaning of contaminated soil with microbes, enhancing carbon capture and reducing heavy-metal contamination to surrounding communities,” says Dr. Nelly Aggangan, who leads the GMAP program.
The GMAP program is under “Sustainable Communities,” the priority program of the National Integrated Basic Research Agenda of the Harmonized National Research Agenda 2017-2022 of the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines.
The program’s first phase was done in 2015-2018 in a coppergold mined-out and mine tailing dumpsite in Marinduque. The protocol it developed is now being adopted by the local government units and being replicated in Surigao, the location of the program’s second phase.
The GMAP in Surigao del Norte, which is expected to end this year, aims to test the effectiveness of the Marinduque bioremediation protocol by assessing Marinduque isolates potency in rehabilitating gold and nickel areas. It also looks for microbes in Surigao that can help in bioremediation.
Aggangan said if they work in Surigao as expected, “we can also introduce the Marinduque isolates in all mined-out areas in the Philippines.”
The importance of inoculants
The GMAP researchers developed microbial-based fertilizers or mycorrhizal inoculants: The soilbased Mykovam and Mykorich, which is sand-based.
These developed inoculants give way to symbiosis, the give-andtake relationship between plants and the fungus: As the fungi derive nutrients from the soil, the plants give out carbohydrates and the population of microbes crucial to the bioremediation increases.
Inoculants cause plants to grow bigger and taller with more developed roots. Meanwhile, inoculated plants remove nickel contaminants from the soil. As contaminants are drawn in by plants, the soil is cleaned of toxic materials.
Comparing the traditional fertilizer and the inoculants, Aggangan claims the former is relatively expensive, easily runs out and can even end up polluting the ecosystem; meanwhile, the latter can only be applied once and lasts for a longer period.
“’Pag palagi kang naglalagay ng abono, nagiging acidic ‘yung lupa. Samantalang sa microbyo, ‘yung acidic ginagawa nyang maging neutral para maging mas malago ang halaman. ‘Pag acidic, posibleng mamatay or maging bansot ‘yung halaman,” Aggangan describes the advantages of inoculants when applied in the soil of mined-out areas.
Despite the success of the program’s first two phases, Aggangan appeals to the mining companies to cooperate and allow them to conduct their research in their mining sites.
“Hindi ko kaya ito mag-isa ... Lalong-lalo na sa mga andoon sa mga para lalong maganda ang aming maituturo sa inyo,”