Do Rivers Have Rights?

Colombia's Constitutional Court made a surprising ruling recently.

The Atrato River flows into the
Caribbean near the border
with Panama.

The court ordered the government to end illegal mining in the Chocó region and clean up the widespread environmental damage mining has caused. But the ruling went further, and declared that the Atrato River possesses rights which must be respected - giving the river a legal status something like personhood.

There's no doubting the environmental catastrophe caused by illegal mining, logging and other resource extraction activities in the Chocó region. Huge areas have been deforested and poisoned with mercury. According to news reports, mercury concentrations in residents' blood may be as many as 120 times higher than levels considered safe.

Land denuded by illegal mining in the Chocó region.

But stopping the environmental damage is easier said than done. Illegal and informal gold miners use mercury because it's the cheapest, easiest way to pull out the precious metal, and believe they can't afford to use safer methods. Poverty drives impoverished Chocó residents to suffer the dangers and miserable conditions in illegal mines, and that won't change until Colombia's economy undergoes a transformation.

Future court decisions will define what rights a river can have, and perhaps, also give trees, seas and non-human aniimals human-like rights as well.

But, in light of Colombia's inability to protect its rivers and forests, it would be nice to arm those trees, rivers and forests and enable them to protect themselves

The lawsuit was filed by the NGO Tierra Digna, which works to protect the rights of traditional communities.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Cajamarca Mining Ban - Environmental Boon or Disaster?

Location of La Colosa mine
in Tolima department.

When residents of Cajamarca, Tolima voted recently in a non-binding referendum against AngloGold Ashanti's planned La Colosa gold mine I was surprised, particularly by the overwhelming 97-to-3 percent vote margin.

After all, the mine would have brought investment and jobs to the region, albeit with a big environmental cost.

To the credit of the South African-based company's credit, a few days ago it suspended operations at La Colosa, despite insistence by the Ministry of Mines and Energy that the referendum was merely symbolic. That decision ended 400 jobs, according to the company.

"It's a positive sign for democracy," Renzo García, of The Committee in Defense of Water, told the El Espectador newspaper.

The site is estimated to contain
more than 30 million ounces of gold.

But would the end of this mine, estimated to contain 30 million ounces of gold, be a clear win for the environment?

Undoubtedly, a huge mine like this one would destroy a huge surface area and consume and pollute lots of water. And its trucks and machines would pump lots of dirty gases into the atmosphere.

But what is the alternative? If these 30 million ounces of gold aren't produced by La Colosa, gold supplies will be lower and prices will rise a bit worldwide. That will incentivize gold mining elsewhere - including much more destructive illegal mines.

Illegal gold mining in El Chocó devastates rivers
and poisons miners and even townspeople.
Photo: El Tiempo

Big corporate mines, for all of their impacts, do at least have the resources and sophistication to utilize techniques to minimize pollution and dangers to human health. (And if they don't, then at least there's somebody to sue.) In contrast, illegal and informal miners are generally impoverished, unsophisticated people who use the most dangerous methods to strip gold from the soil. Near Colombia's Pacific coast, hundreds of rivers have been devastated by illegal gold mines, and even residents of towns have dangerous levels of mercury from the mines in their blood.

All of which is not to say that the La Colosa mine would be a positive thing - but at least to ask the question.

Illegal mining's environmental devastation.
Photo: Semana

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia - Country of Conflicts

La Guajira residents protest against a proposed rerouting of the Rancheria River.

We know that Colombia has the world's longest-running domestic armed conflict, now closing in on a half-century. But Colombia is also a world leader in environmental and other conflicts, according to several recent reports.

The two phenomena, likely, aren't unrelated.

Houses near the Marmato gold mine in Caldas Department.
Mine neighbors won a lawsuit against
the mine for damage to their homes.

A report issued in March by the awkwardly-named Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade (Ejolt) counted 72 environmental conflicts in Colombia, primarily around hydroelectric dams, petroleum production and agroindustrial projects, second only to the 112 conflicts they counted in India. Colombia had far more conflicts even than much bigger countries such as Brazil, where they counted 58. Tiny Ecuador had 48 conflicts, Argentina had 32, Perú 31 and Chile 30, according to Ejolt's count.


The study, which has to be subjective (what exactly rates being a conflict?) still provides a measure of the accelerating exploitation of natural resources in Colombia and across the region, which inevitably generates conflicts between the projects' often impoverished neighbors and the huge corporations carrying out those projects.

The Marmato gold mine in Caldas Department.

For his part, Prof. Mario Alejandro Pérez of the Universidad del Valle, counted 110 environmental conflicts in Colombia, of which he was able to gather sufficient information about 72. (Perez worked with the Ejolt).

According to Perez, 59% of the conflicts are related to mining and oil production, and slightly more than half involve foreign multinational corporations.

In La Guajira, a desert peninsula, the Cerrejo coal mine has proposed rerouting the Ranchería River to expand the mine. In Caldas Department, owners of the centuries-old Marmato gold mine want to displace a town to expand the mine.

All across the country, many of the generally poor communities near mines and petroleum fields have protested against the health and environmental impacts they suffer, while receiving few benefits.

In recent years, Colombia has opened itself up to resource extraction, including mining and oil drilling, bringing powerful corporations into conflict with poor people and the natural environment. In a nation in which power is very unevenly distributed and poor people feel powerless against sophisticated corporations, it's not surprising that tensions often break out into conflicts, some of them violent.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Two Wins for the Environment

Gold mountain?

Colombia's environment scored two wins the other day:

In one, Canadian mining company Greystar backed off of its plan for a huge open-pit gold mine near the city of Bucaramanga, after environmental authorities said the project was unacceptable. Colombia is experiencing a gold mining boom as the metal's price has soared - with its related environmental impacts: jungles and wetlands destroyed and rivers poisoned with mercury and choked with silt.

The proposed Greystar Mine might have been better than most - the company had promised to reforest six acres for each one destroyed and to carefully manage the cyanide it used. And, the company argued, much of the area planned for its mine had already been damaged by illegal, informal miners, who use even-more-damaging mercury.

Illegal mining's devastation - the worst of all worlds. (Foto: Dinero magazine)

Certainly, Greystar's project might have been less bad than others, but the project would have made a travesty of Colombian law prohibiting mining in paramos: high-altitude wetlands which produce much of the country's fresh water. To have approved this project would have made a mockery of the law and set a terrible precedent.

Map showing mining concessions overlaid on
forest areas in  the Serrania de San Lucas.
Foto: Geominas

Besides, Colombia still has time to escape from the long list of 'developing' nations which have sold off their natural resources and been left with only poverty and a devastated environment to show for it. Tragically, raw material production often feeds corruption and outlaw groups and does little to develop the kind of skilled jobs which build sustainable economic growth.

Now, Greystar is talking about building instead an undergound mine, which would cause much less environmental impact, but produce less gold and be more dangerous for miners. That could be a reasonable compromise, and would demonstrate that Colombia's environmental laws do mean something.

If Colombian officials respect the spirit of the laws protecting paramos, these critical wetlands could be preserved for more future generations - or at least until they fall victim to global warming.

Jumping for joy?

The second win for the environment was Colombia's decision to join the International Whaling Commission. Why this was an issue at all is a mystery to me. After all, Colombians do not either hunt or eat whales, and the country's relations with whale-hunting nations aren't particularly close. But Colombia is increasingly marketing itself as a whale watching destination. Every year between July and November, humpbacks meet and mate off of Colombia's Pacific Coast.

In 2009, the Dominican Republic joined the IWC, leaving Venezuela as the only Latin American nation outside of the organizaion. (Some small Carribean nations have joined apparently at the behest of Japan and defend its whale hunting.)

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours