Alignment of Mining Sustainable Development Goal Assessment with Geoconservation in the Seridó UNESCO Global Geopark, Northeast Brazil

Mining activities are permitted within several UNESCO Global Geoparks. Sustainable development within these geoparks should align resource extractive objectives with geoconservation and community development initiatives, but full integration can be costly and time-consuming. The assessment of sustainable development actions in mining contexts is common, but not within geopark territories or in geoconservation contexts. Using two mining case studies from the Seridó UNESCO Global Geopark, Brazil, we document self-reported sustainability actions using a modified application of the MONET monitoring of environment and territory instrument. Company managers reported activities and actions aligned with the three MONET dimensions of Economic Efficiency, Social Solidarity, and Environmental Responsibility. We subsequently assessed these as ‘promoting’, ‘partially promoting’ or ‘not promoting’ postulates under these dimensions, and evaluated the relative intensity and temporal duration of reported actions and their anticipated impacts categorically, before thematically mapping postulates to relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both companies reported strong engagement with Economic Efficiency and Social Solidarity postulates through employment generation, community programs, and market participation activity. However, Environmental Responsibility postulates were less consistently promoted, with actions partially implemented. Long-term activities were linked to more durable impacts, verifying the importance of investment in sustainability initiatives within geoparks. Although, few MONET postulates directly addresed geoconservation, company investments waste recovery or reuse, and research may support geoheritage promotion. Our findings indicate substantial potential for improved integration between mining operations and geopark governance that supports employment and community wellbeing while maintaining geotouristic visitor experience and geoheritage interpretability.