Project

Photo: Alberto Peña Kay

Protecting the Santurban Páramo from mining's damages

In the Andean region, high-altitude forests and wetlands called páramos capture water from fog and supply it to lowlands. In Colombia, nearly two million people rely on the Santurbán páramo for their freshwater supply.

Healthy páramos also capture large amounts of carbon, mitigating climate change, and provide refuge for hundreds of threatened species, including the iconic spectacled bear.

The land in and around the Santurbán páramo contains gold and other minerals. A Canadian corporation, Eco Oro minerals, wants to build a gold mine that would leak large amounts of cyanide and arsenic into the water coming from the páramo.

AIDA’s advocacy helped to convince the Colombian government to:

  • Deny an environmental license for the Angostura mine in May 2011.
  • Protect, in 2013, 76 percent of the Santurbán páramo from industrial activities—a much larger percentage than originally proposed

Together with our partners, AIDA advocated for the World Bank's divestment from the Angostura mining project, which we achieved in December 2016. 

We also ed litigation that led Colombia’s highest court to reaffirm in February 2016 that mining in páramos is prohibited.

However, 24 percent of the Santurbán remains unprotected because it was not officially designated a páramo during the government's delimitation process, which was invalidated by a court system in November 2017 due to failure to consult with affected communities. 

The government must now realize a new delimitation process in consultation with residents of the area. Meanwhile, the threats to Santurbán continue, with Eco Oro still angling to build its mine and another mining project seeking establishment nearby.    

 


Toxic Pollution

La Oroya Cannot Wait

This publication is the product of a careful analysis of official environmental monitoring reports submitted for the Doe Run multi-metal smelter to the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines between 1996 and 2001. By finally filling the void in public information about contamination levels in La Oroya, this work demonstrates that the right to access information is an essential pillar of citizen participation. Only with these type of facts in hand can civil society protect itself against the powerful interests of giant mining companies like Doe Run. The reader will come to understand the severe health problems and risks suffered by the local population and particulary the children in La Oroya. But the authors go beyond this. They suggest the implementation of corrective and preventive measures that will require the participation of not only the company but also the Peruvian State. These are actions that cannot be postponed if we are to guarantee the human right to health, improve quality of life, and permit development in Peru. The authors also provide a legal analysis of environmental protection in the minerals sector, and recommendations for making this system more effective. Above all, this publication is an invitation to take meaningful and timely steps toward solving the extraordinary environmental and human health problems in La Oroya. Read and the publication  

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