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Learning Routes“Learning from the impact of the extractive industries in Latin America and southern
Africa”PROCASUR-Ford Foundation
Case: Páramo SanturbánDepartament of Santander and North of Santander,
Colombia.
“The environmental defense of Páramo Santurbán as an ecosystem of life”
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1. Characterization of the Páramo ecosystems
Colombia has some of the greatest levels of biodiversity in the world. While it represents .7 percent of the land on earth, it harbors about 10 percent of the flora and fauna. Among the diverse range of ecosystems found in Colombia are the páramos, which representative half of all páramos found in the world. They cover 1.7 percent of the country (1,795,614 ha) and provide water for 70 percent of the population, as the principal rivers flow from them1.
What is a Páramo?
The páramo is a tropical mountain ecosystem which develops above the tree line (3200 meters above sea level) and is limited in altitude by glaciars. In the Andes páramos are found to the north from the Mérida mountain range in Venezuela, traversing the mountainous chains through Colombia and Ecuador and to the Huancabamba depression in Peru2.
The páramo is recognized for the important ecological roles they play. This includes regulation of the hydrological cycle, atmospheric carbon storage, and their position as a biological corridor for diverse species of plants and animals. It could be considered a vital ecosystem in the Andes region3. Furthermore, the páramos are the home to numerous indigenous and peasant communities with ancient heritage, whom have also been key in the conservation of these areas.
As a strategic ecosystem, these high altitude wetlands act as “water factories” for lower altitude areas, and their protection has been consolidated through diverse international and national legal rulings. Internationally, Colombia has ratified a series of instruments that assure the protection of these ecosystems, including: The Convention on Biological Biodiversity (approved with Law 165 in 1994), the Framework Convention of the United Nations on Climate Change (approved with Law 164 in 1994), the Kyoto Protocol (approved with Law 629 in 2000), and the Convention related to wetlands of international importance specifically due to their role as habitat for waterfowl – the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands – (approved with Law 357 in 1997.
The 1991 Political Constitution of 1991 recognizes the natural and cultural diversity of the nation and grants the duty to the State to conserve these area of special ecological importance (Art. 79). Said constitutional precepts are developed further in the Law 199 of 1993, which
1 www.humboldt.org.co2 www.paramo.org3 Ídem
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establishes the protection of the páramo as a general environmental principle that should be protected by Colombian environmental policy. Resolution 769 of 2002 supports the protection, conservation, and sustainability of the páramos throughout the country by obligating Studies on the Current State of the Páramos and the creation of the Environmental Management Plans for them.
The páramos also have a direct relation with other types of ecosystems at lower altitudes, which are supplied with water through micro-basins of the rivers, as well as the ecosystems of the sub-páramo and the high-andean Oak forests. Because of this, it is essential to understand the páramos through an ecosystemic perspective as the environmental roles they play not only allow for social production and reproduction, but also the sustenance of other vegetation environments that are tightly linked. This also results in the protection of the páramos as fundamental to national security4. At a local level, it is the duty of the Autonomous Regional Corporations and the municipalities to assure the good condition and use of these ecosystems.
Despite this, the páramos have been significantly impacted over the past 40 years by human activities, and currently about 100,000 has are threatened by mining.
The Páramo Santurbán Complex
4 Colombia is part of the “Proyecto Páramo Andino”, which is led by consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN) whose objective is the protection, conservation and improvement of these ecosystems in the Northern Andes.
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The Páramo Santurbán Complex (CPS), is located north of the eastern Colombian mountain range between the Santander and Santander North departments. They spread across 95,000 has between 3,000 and 4,500 meters above sea level5.
They straddle the municipalities of California, Vetas, Tona and Charta. In the Santander North department, their preservation has been assured in 2008 upon being declared a “Park” (Parque Natural.)
The CPS has rich endemic vegetation and species of flora and fauna, with 457 plant species, 201 bird, 58 mammal, 17 amphibian and 17 reptile species.6.
Similarly, the rich hydrological production from this páramo leads to the birth of numerous rivers, includings, Suratá, Vetas, Oro, Frio, Cachira and Chitaga, in addition to multiple ravines that channel water towards them. Other areas of capture and recharging of water for aquifers are in complex lagoons (north and south with more than 80 lagoons,) wetlands and peatbogs, or other swampy areas of production, reserve and birthing of hydrological resources, which cover 441 has.
More than 20 municipalities and the metropolitan areas of Bucaramanga7 and Cucuta8 depend on the hydrological offering provided by the CPS. It is estimated that more than 2.2 million people benefit from the aquifer, with a potential to provide water in the future to over 10 million people.
2. Learning Objectives
- Identify the characteristics associated with the Páramo Santurbán Complex as an ecosystem with life and relevance as an aquifer.
- Analyze the legal frameworks associated with mining activity in Colombia and the gold and silver extraction proposal by the Greystar company in the Páramo Santurbán Complex
- Understand the social mobilization process for the defense of the Páramo Santurbán Complex, and their major actors, strategies and milestones.
5 www.humboldt.org.co6 Corporación para la Defensa de la Meseta de Bucaramanga.7 Capital of the Santander department8 Capital Santander North department
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3. Environmental defense of the Páramo Santurbán Complex
During recent years, pressure by mining activity in Colombia has begun to gravely threaten the páramo ecosystems, as vast areas of mining titles are granted in these regions.
One of the most emblematic cases on a national level is the “Angosturas” mining project, which is backed by the Canadian company Greystar Resources Ltda. The project entails intervening in the páramos of Santurbán in California and Vetas, two municipalities with a historical tradition of artesanal mining.
Project background –Angosturas-
In 1994, the Greystar Resources Ltda. company acquired –through the purchase from private landowners- mining rights in the parámo Santurbán region9, and began in 1995 exploration work that would last another 15 years. These studies identified more than 1,100 has of land to be mined.
Towards the end of 2009, the company presented to the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Regional Development – MAVDT – a request for an environmental permit (accompanied by an Environmental Impact statement EIA10) to carry out the “Angosturas” project.
The project plans for the development of an open-pit gold and silver mine located in the heart of the high Andean forests and wetlands of the Santurbán páramo in the California and Vetas
9 Currently, the company has more than 30,000 has. of mining titles in the páramo region.10 EIA N° 4120-E1-156074 corresponding to mining concession 3452
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municipalities. The initiative will be spread across 1,104.19 has between the elevations of 2,600 and 4,100 meters above sea level. There will be an area for excavation, two leach piles, a slag heap and a water reservoir.
During the 15 years of planned exploitation, Greystar Resources calculates it will extract 239 tons of gold and 1073 tons of silver. On average this figures out to an annual amount of 511 ounces of gold and 2.5 million ounces of silver beginning in 2011. To reach this goal the company will use 230 tons of ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (an explosive) per day to break rock, 40 tons of sodium cyanide to irrigate the leach piles, mixed in a proportion of 50 mg per liter of water11.
While detractors of “Angosturas” argue of the environmental and social inviability of the project in terms of how it will affect a strategic and fragile ecosystem by contaminating waters with cyanide, the company self-identifies as a “responsible mining company” which will work with the highest standards of quality. Similarly, the company assures that the use of cyanide will not affect or contaminate the waters, which will be treated in a plant to remove metals and generate water for human consumption and agricultural use12.
“Elements for legal defense and analysis”
The mining initative in the Páramo Santurbán has become an emblematic case in Colombia that has sustained a national discussion over the levels of protection the páramos should have. The analysis over the evaluation of the “Angosturas” project has brought about elements for a general reflection about the applicable legal frameworks associated with ecosystems and for conservation.
It should be indicated that in Colombia, mining law (Law 685 of 2001) regulates “legal relations of the State with private parties and relations between private parties, for the cause of work or projects in the mining industry” (article 1.) These laws also establish zones that are excluded from mining (article 34), among those include “the designated ecosystems of the páramo and wetlands within the list of international importance of the Ramsar Convention13.
Thereby, these zones are considered “páramo areas” having been delimited by the environmental authority based upon technical studies by the “Instituto de Investigación Alexander Von 11 Facts provided by Mario Flórez (Comité de Defensa por el Agua del Páramo Santurbán) and provided by the company in the Environmental Impact statement–EIA- of “Angosturas” presented to the Ministerio del Ambiente, vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial.12 Declarations of “Steve Kesler” –ex president and executive director of Greystar Resources- to the CM& news agency.13 Beginning in 2009, the Consitutional Court decreed that the páramo ecosystems should be integrated into the Mining Law as areas excluded from mining. This was a response to an inconstitutionality allegation brought by AIDA (Asociación Internacional para la Defensa del Ambiente) as initially the Mining Law did not look at the páramos as excluded from mining, while the political constitution of the State assured their conservation.
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Humboldt”, the “Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales de Colombia” and the “Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi” by agreement with the MAVDT, the organism responsible for defining the geographic coordinates of the páramos in Colombia. In the specific case of Santurbán, the altitudinal level defined by the biophysical criteria was 3,100 meters above sea level.
However, according to the EIA presented by Greystar the area of mining activity is above 3,525 meters above sea level, affecting the extractive initiative in the Santurbán páramo declared as of public interest.
At the same time, the páramo of Santurbán was located between two municipalities that share jurisdiction and national regulations establish the necessity for there to be a joint commision charged with concentrating, harmonizing and defining corresponding environmental management policies. But, this joint commission has yet to be carried out, and each municipality is creating separate studies, lapsing with a legal incompliance which has resulted in the Santurbán páramo not being treated as an area excluded from mining.
In a parallel fashion, in 2010 the process to obtain an environmental license was reformed, making the evaluation and processing quicker, and the National System of Protected Areas being regulated.
“The social movement for water”
In Bucaramanga and neighboring areas the arrival of Greystar Resources and their large open-pit mining project in the high mountains of the páramo of Santurbán has triggered uncertainty and concerns associated with the implications and risks of this extractive activity.
After an informative documentation process which meant understanding the consequences associated with “Angosturas,” the Bucaramanga population began their opposition, fearing the mine would put in grave risk the water supply to their community and others.
With the goal of generating an organized opposition, in April of 2010, the “Committee for the Defense of Water of the Páramo of Santurbán” was formed. This group was composed of diverse environmental organizations in Bucaramanga, community leaders, university students and cititzens. They brought themselves together to fight against the approval of the project. From its beginnings, the committee was structured around the principle of horizontality, without hierarchies and with an assembly as the space for decision-making.
Through a number of diverse communications strategies like public declarations, debates, marches, assemblies and national and international forums –with the additional help from the society of Santander engineers – a reflection upon the real socioenvironmental implications of “Angosturas” began, bit by bit, to be inserted into public opinion.
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“As the issue of water and mining became debated in society, diverse and important organizations began to gather around the discussion, which converted into an ideological dispute between those for and
against the project.”Mario Flórez,
Member – Committee for the Defense of Water of the Páramo of Santurbán-
The media shortly became a determining factor in increasing the visibility of the conflict, although a few, like the El Frente newspaper- negatively stigmatized the social movement, at one point associating it with guerilla movements.
Despite this, the committee was able to bring important sectors to support the rescue of the water, like for example, the Federación Nacional de Comerciantes (FENALCO) of Santander. With the participation of the regional branch of the FENALCO, the social movement was broadly strengthened. Their executive director Ewing Rodriguez took over a strategic leadership role. His major contribution was to succesfully propose to citizens and the press the campaign, “Defend the Water of Bucaramanga.” The proposition included the design of an official logo, and a t-shirt, that along with the concept was distributed through social media like Twitter and Facebook.
Whereas, the company launched a number of strategies in support of the approval of the project, financing music festivals and advertising campaigns with mottos like, “Yes, I believe in Greystar,” betting on a lobby of the people living in the neighboring communities to the project. The social movement of the “Committee for the Defense of Water of the Páramo of Santurbán,” worked to increase the perception that the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga would be part of the area directly impacted by the project.
Towards the end of November 2010, a “public hearing” was held in the California municipality, the only scheduled hearing of this sort in the process of evaluating the environmental permit. This is was an opportunity for civil society to discuss and express opinions about the project. This space for debate mobilized, and then led to a confrontation, between those who supported the project (primarily small farmers in California and Vetas who were spurred by the possibility of working in jobs promised by Greystar) and their detractors (who came from Bucaramanga, and were supported by social organizations and academic sectors.)
When stormy weather led to road closures and prevented the arrival of numerous people interested in giving their vision of a project, a second hearing was scheduled.
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During this period, and through a spokesperson of FENALCO with the support of the committee, on February 25, 2011 a peaceful march to express the need to protect these water resources was convened in Bucaramanga. More than 40,000 people came to march, and led to the political class and regional authorities positioning themselves against the mining project.
The second hearing in Bucaramanga on March 4, 2011 saw 400 speakers from different sectors of civil society. Throughout the hearing, the heated climate of conflict between sympathizers and detractors of “Angosturas” led to the hearing being suspended.
Discontented with the suspension of the hearing, people who argued for the defense of the Santurbán páramo flooded the MAVDT and the Ministry of Mining and Energy, papers, documents and letters that provided technical, social, judicial14 and environmental support to their opposition of the project.
Days letter, on March 19, Greystar gave up their pursuit of the project and requested to retract their request for an environmental permit from the MAVDT. This was a milestone for Bucaramanga’s social movement for water.
In May of this year, the MAVDT rejected the environmental permit of Greystar while indicating they would continue with the official process as it is in the “public interest” for the Colombia. This pronouncement establishes the primacy of a clean environment as the principle argument for rejecting the permit, although there remain several items of uncertainty about the future of the páramos in relations to mining activity in the country.
4. Lessons from the process
Several lessons can be derived from the citizen defense of the Santurbán páramo from the “Angosturas” project:14 The Asociación Internacional para la Defensa Ambiental –AIDA- is one of the organizations that provided the legal foundations of the illegality of the “Angosturas” project before MAVDT and the Ministry of Mining.
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- Citizen organization as an effective strategy for raising consciousness. The strength of the citizen’s movement in defense of the water is based in a series of elements, like: a horizontal participation structure with an assembly decision-making structure, a positive message like “Save the water” which acted as an integrating element and sensitized different levels and social sectors of the population, like: environmental and social organizations, professional organizations, university students, the private sector, residents and citizens, women and children, among others.
- Conceiving of the páramos as an ecosystem with strategic life. The citizen defense was able to see this the fundamental relevance between the páramos as reservoirs and suppliers of water, a non-renewable resource whose contamination cannot be mitigated or reversed. Water has been re-established as a fundamental right.
- The effective use of means of communication and social media to make the conflict visible. Acting individually, the participation and leadership of people representing private industry contributed to call attention from written and audio-visual media about the environmental issue in Bucaramanga. This was complemented by a strong communications campaign through Twitter and Facebook, which secured the participation of young people.
- Development of effective strategies to strike up discussions about the protection of páramos at a national level. The raised media profile of the defense process, but also the provision of technical information and documentation (generated by institutions, research centers and the academic community, among others) grounded the opposition arguments, and placed the issue in the public agenda. The subsequent reflection provided analytical elements to position the issue among national level conversations about mining projects in general, the legal frameworks for the protection of páramos as ecosystems for life and sustainable development.
- An ability to influence the political positions of governmental authorities. Through social mobilization, the political class was influenced and subsequently publicly expressed their opposition to the project and support for citizens. This established a precedent for future discussions, making the political sector look more closely at the manner in which a discussion about mining in Colombia should occur as well as the situation of the páramos as areas excluded from mining.
5. Conclusions
The experience of the Páramo of Santurbán and the “Angosturas” mining project sets a national precedent for debate surrounding how to reconcile environmental norms and mining. While Greystar decide to pull their request for an environmental permit to exploit gold and silver in an
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open-pit mine within the páramo zone, the company maintains the mining rights for the area, and the threat remains.
Recently a series of new developments show a rearrangement of the project. Beginning in April 2011, Greystar has sought to change their image in the country and replaced their old board of directors with a new board that has a majority Colombians. Also, involved in the company are new shareholders like Amber Capital, Paulson and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. With the intention of presenting themselves as a business with a commitment to the environment, the firm announced, under a new name, the Colombian Gold Company (Empresa Colombiana de Oro) – Eco Oro Minerals Corp., and their plans to begin a new subterranean mining project in the area.
The position of the government with relation to mining exploitation in the páramos zone remains ambiguous and the activation of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and Canada in August of this year complicates the scenario. Pressure will be generated on this issue as more foreign investment in mining is expected.
Civil society continues to unfold strategies to guarantee the protection of the páramos and the hydrological resources of Bucaramanga and neighboring municipalities. The Committee for the Defense of Water of the Páramo of Santurbán is currently working on a “Water Referendum” which has been approved by the departmental assembly and is being submitted to a constitutional evaluation to be conducted in October along with municipal elections. This initiative sheds light on the possibilities presented by a political movement as a fundamental social tool to pressure and collaborate in the development of public policy.
In this sense, the discussion about mining, páramos and water can be understood as an active national debate. While the case of the Santurbán páramo case has contributed to placing the issue in the minds of the public, new sociopolitical realignments provide for new elements and new challenges. The legal, political and socio-environmental positions and arguments that are guiding the debate not only represent a reference for the future treatment of the páramos in Colombia, but also for the rest of the countries in Latin American with these types of ecosystems.
Consulted sources
- Notes from the systematization meeting with “Asociación Internacional para la Defensa del Ambiente” (AIDA), August 22, 2011, Bogota, Colombia.
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- Notes from the systematization meeting together with members of the “Comité por la Defensa del Agua del Páramo de Santurbán”, August 24, 2011, Bucaramanga, Colombia.
- Interview with Erwing Rodriguez, former director of FENALCO Santander, conducted on August 24, 2011, Bucaramanga, Colombia.
- “Minería y Derecho a la participación”. (Mining and the Right to Participation) Yamile Salinas and Héctor Herrera, INDEPAZ, 2010, Bogota, Colombia.
- “Marco jurídico aplicable a la protección del páramo en Colombia y desafíos políticos y administrativos para su efectividad”, (Applicable judicial framework for the protection of the Colombian páramo and the political and administrative challenges to their effectiveness) Marcela Jiménez Larrate, Instituto Humboldt, Colombia.
- “Corporación para la Defensa de la Meseta de Bucaramanga”, Power Point.
- Internet websites:
http://www.humboldt.org.co
www.paramo.org
www.paramocolombia.info
www.greystarresources.com
www.aida-americas.org
www.condesan.org
- Media coverage of the “Angosturas” project by the CM& news agency.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkcjhDr-48&feature=related
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7xHFhXo4Y8&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUURmFlnct4&feature=related
Contacts:
Nombre Rol Email
Natalia Jiménez Coordinadora AIDA [email protected]
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