Colombia faces a pivotal choice for its future. It must choose between protecting its high-altitude moors as its water source for millions of people or authorizing large-scale mining in these fragile ecosystems.
AIDA, together with its allied organizations, is working to convince the authorities to choose water and this cause recently won a new ally: Al Gore.
The former U.S. vice president, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his success at raising awareness about climate change, brought up the issue of mining in the moors, known locally as páramos, in April.
“Colombia must choose between the gold in the páramo and profits for a few people, or the drinking water that supplies all of its citizens,” he said at an international summit on the environment in Bucaramanga, a city in northeastern Colombia that gets its water from the Santurbán Páramo.
We’ve been calling on the Colombian government to protect this moor and others around the country from mining, given that they provide 85% of the country’s water.
By law, the government must keep mining out of the páramos. But to do this, their boundaries must first be mapped.
This poses a problem. In April, the government unveiled its map showing that the Santurbán Páramo stretches over 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres). That’s more than the 11,000 hectares of previous estimates. But it’s only about half the 82,000 hectares measured by the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, an independent state research center that used a larger scale map than the government. The larger scale provides richer details that show how the moor extends further.
The government has not adopted an official measurement, leaving important parts of the moor open to mining, an industry it is promoting to spur economic growth.
But at what costs? Large-scale mining will cause irreversible damage to these flora-rich moors that not only supply water to millions of people but also help mitigate the effects of climate change by capturing carbon emissions.
Gore was clear on what choice he recommends for Colombia or any country facing questions of economic growth versus environmental protect.
“Without a planet, there is no economy that is worth anything,” he said.
You can help us spread the message by making a donation and signing our petition so that we can continue the fight to save Colombia’s moors.
Thank you!
