The project Layers of Natural Resource Extraction examined how mining and other extractive activities shape economic, environmental, and social outcomes across space and over time. It developed and applied new empirical, geospatial, and Bayesian methods to study these layered impacts, with a focus on spillovers, land-use change, agriculture, forests, and regional development.

The project is now concluding. The final project presentation will be held on May 20, 2026 in the WU Ecological Economics Seminar. The project produced four peer-reviewed publications, open software and data outputs, an interactive mine map, and follow-up research, including the Dynamine CEPR/ReCIPE project (Nikolas Kuschnig with Victoire Girard and Lukas Vashold).

Publications

• Vashold, L., Pirich, G., Heinze, M., and Kuschnig, N. (2026). Downstream Impacts of Mines on Agriculture in Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 179:103671, DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103671, Working Paper, VoxDev article.

• Sepin, P., Kuschnig, N., and Vashold, L.: Mapping Mining Areas in the Tropics from 2016 to 2024 (2025). Nature Sustainability, 8:1400–1407, DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01668-9, Working Paper, Interactive Map.

• Luckeneder, S., Maus, V., Siqueira-Gay, J., Krisztin, T., and Kuhn, M.: Forest Loss and Uncertain Economic Gains from Industrial and Garimpo Mining in Brazilian Municipalities. Nature Communications, 16, 6543, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61930-8.

• Kuschnig, N., Vashold, L., Soterroni, A., and Obersteiner, M. (2023). Eroding Resilience of Deforestation Interventions — Evidence from Brazil’s Lost Decade. Environmental Research Letters, 18(7):074039, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acdfe7.

Work-in-progress

• Kuschnig, N.: Networks in Space – Spillovers in Amazon Deforestation. Work in Progress, Slides.

• Kuschnig, N. and Vashold, L.: Man Eats Forest: Impacts of Cattle Ranching on Amazon Deforestation. Work in Progress, Slides.

Other

• VoxDev article on mining impacts
• Interactive mining map
• bsreg R package

Team

• Nikolas Kuschnig – Principal Investigator
• Stefan Giljum – Principal Investigator
• Lukas Vashold – Researcher
• Sebastian Luckeneder – Researcher
• Maximilian Heinze – Research Assistant
• Gustav Pirich – Research Assistant
• Philipp Sepin – Research Assistant

Get in touch

Nikolas Kuschnig (nikolas.kuschnig@monash.edu)
Monash University
900 Dandenong Road, 3145 East Caulfield, Australia