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 mini-forests 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.