Events that change the global economy rapidly, without warning, in principle strongly affect mining, which is one of the pillars of global development. After the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the mining pillar seems to be relatively stable. In this study, thanks to the meeting of an international team, it was possible to collect and compare a set of data on the impact on mining. In contrast to the general assessments of the stability of the mining sector, the authors decided to assess the impact of Covid-19 at individual stages of the mining project life cycle. In this way, it was possible to identify the most impacted fragments of the mining pillar. It was assessed that the highest influence of Covid-19 is observed in projects implementing feasibility studies and in projects for the development of new mines. The same is true of extracting residual resources in mines prior to the closure decision. The medium impact was confirmed at the exploration and discovery stage. The authors conclude that the impact on the current mining production is smaller and the effects in this case are short term, which is mainly due to a continued strong demand for minerals in China, which has balanced the weaker demand in other parts of the world. On the other hand, stopping the exploration and development of new mines will have a long-term impact, including an increased possibility of disruption of the future security of supplies of raw materials.

Mineral deposits are essential for the economic, technological and social development. However, to enable them to play an appropriate role in the process of sustainable development, they need to be safeguarded in a comprehensive and systemic manner in the same measure as other elements of the environment. The practice of securing access to areas where the mineral deposits can be found is based on the statement that they can be extracted only in places where they occur. This fact defines the type and scope of instruments for safeguarding prospective deposit areas of minerals and their documented deposits. These issues gained in significance in the EU level in recent years however views on this subject across the Member States still vary. The paper subjects instruments of mineral deposit safeguarding used in Poland, Slovakia and Czechia to the analysis and multi-criteria comparative assessment. It recommends their division into the conceptual, legal, spatial planning and economic ones. As a result of studies, similarities and differences in the approach to mineral deposit safeguarding in individual countries are shown, indicating good practices and suggesting possible changes. The analysis revealed many analogies in actions aimed at mineral deposit safeguarding in individual countries, however the assessment of their effectiveness and implementation points at the necessity of taking further steps to increase deposit safeguarding.

Events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that rapidly impact global communication and travel have significant consequences for the tourism industry, which is one of the pillars of global development. We assess the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the Colca y Volcanes de Andagua UNESCO Global Geopark in Peru. The Colca y Volcanes de Andagua Geopark was established immediately prior to the pandemic in October 2019. The instability of the government in Peru during the pandemic and the difficult living conditions in the high Andes, such as the lack of drinking water, cleaning agents, medical care, and the high levels of poverty, particularly in the geopark region, has contributed to the significantly high COVID-19 infection rates. In addition, detrimental impacts faced by the local community are a direct result of a reduction in travellers to the area due to legislative restrictions, which have had negative consequences on the local tourism industry. There is an urgent need for the recovery of the local tourism industry to prevent the permanent closure of tourism facilities and to minimise poverty rates.

Known mostly in Poland, formulated by prof. Goetel, science—sozology, perfectly corresponds to today’s developing pro-environmental activities. Sozology combines both concerns for the precious values of primaeval nature and the management of man transformed areas. It includes civilisation changes, climate change, and access to natural resources. The article discusses five main research directions: (1) Protection of the natural environment and mineral resources, (2) Rational spatial management, (3) Post-exploitation management of industrial areas, (4) Analysis and prevention of environmental changes and (5) Sozology and Eco-geosystem services. The authors of the article point to the need to integrate specialists from various fields who can jointly solve environmental problems. The world constantly needs new motivations to develop while preserving non-renewable resources (space and minerals). In Poland, science has gained popularity only among a narrow group of scientists who do not try to solve difficult problems on their own that require interdisciplinary action. The frequent dead ends of today’s environmental trends indicate that the word ecological is often not enough. If we use a sozological approach, it will turn out to be much more adequate for our current stage of development. Sozology may be the next direction and philosophy of life on Earth. Its goal is to protect resources so that they can be used for as long as possible.

Checklists are one of the simplest but very effective methods used in the phase of planning, preparation and verification of activities, among others in the process of environmental impact assessment. These checklists can be used as a useful tool in every phase of the evaluation process to check the quality of the data used and the work performed and to verify the completeness of the assessments. The aim of the article is to show the applicability of checklists in environmental studies in the field of road construction on the domestic examples and from abroad.