Over the weekend, while dedicating a new national park in
Colombia’s Guajira region, President Juan Manuel Santos declared
that biodiversity is to Colombia is oil is to the Arabs, emphasizing the
importance of conservation. Unfortunately, Colombia has not yet found a way to
commoditize its biodiversity the way Saudi Arabia has with its vast oil
resources. Nonetheless, this environmentalist spirit is spreading to how Colombia
deals with its traditional heavy industry.
The Colombian Environment Ministry launched its National
Mercury Plan to gradually but decisively eliminate
mercury use from mining and industry in Colombia. Environment Minister Gabriel
Vallejo López explained that the plan is a joint effort between many different
sectors of the Colombian society – the government, the mining industry, the
health sector, environmental activists, business interests, and civil society
in general – to have everyone work together towards the same goal. The plan has
between criticized
for not being ambitious enough, so its success will depend primarily on its
implementation and what follow-up efforts this new, broad alliance can agree
upon.
In related news, CB Gold, Inc. breathed a heavy sigh of
relief when the Colombian Environment Ministry released
its newly updated map delineating the Páramo of Santurbán. The updated páramo
boundaries will have no effect on CB Gold’s projects in the area. However,
other mining companies were not as fortunate, and will decide
in January whether to scale back their mining activities or leave the area
altogether.
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