Project
Preserving the legacy of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Heart of the World
Rising abruptly from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta reaches 5,775 meters (18,946 ft.) at its highest points, the peaks of Bolívar and Colón. It is the highest coastal mountain system in the world, a place where indigenous knowledge and nature’s own wisdom converge.
The sheer changes in elevation create a wide variety of ecosystems within a small area, where the diversity of plant and animal life creates a unique exuberant region. The melting snows of the highest peaks form rivers and lakes, whose freshwater flows down steep slopes to the tropical sea at the base of the mountains.
The indigenous Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa, and Kankuamo people protect and care for this natural treasure with an authority they have inherited from their ancestors. According to their worldview the land is sacred and shared in divine communion between humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and the spirts of their ancestors.
Despite this ancestral inheritance, development projects proposed for the region have failed to take the opinions of these indigenous groups into consideration. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is currently threatened by 251 mineral concessions, hydroelectric projects, agriculture, urban sprawl, and infrastructure projects.
Many of these concessions were granted without the prior consultation of the indigenous communities, which represents a persistent and systematic violation of their rights.
Mining, which implies the contamination and erosion of watersheds, threatens the health of more than 30 rivers that flow out of the Sierra; these are the water sources of the departments of Magdalena, César, and La Guajira.
These threats have brought this natural paradise to the brink of no return. With it, would go the traditional lives of its indigenous inhabitants, who are dependent on the health of their land and the sacred sites it contains.
The Sierra hosts the archaeological site of la Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City, known as Teyuna, the cradle of Tayrona civilization. According to tradition, it is the source from which all nature was born—the living heart of the world.
The four guardian cultures of the Sierra are uninterested in allowing this natural and cultural legacy to disappear.
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Civil society organizations celebrate the measure taken by the Colombian Ministry of the Environment, which involves a two year suspension of Canadian company Aris Mining's gold mining project in the páramo.Bogotá, Colombia. The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) - Mining and Trade Project, MiningWatch Canada, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Common Frontiers Canada celebrate the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development’s (MADS) resolution that declares the western side of the Santurbán massif a temporary renewable natural resource reserve area. This major step strengthens the protection of one of the most emblematic high-altitude Andean wetlands, known as páramo, and its related ecosystems, which are fundamental for climate change adaptation and water security in the region for an estimated 2 million people.Resolution 0221, issued on March 3, 2025 by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS), delimits and protects an area of 75,344.65 hectares, ensuring a two year provisional suspension of the Soto Norte gold mining project owned by Canadian company Aris Mining and its Colombian subsidiary, Sociedad Minera de Santander S.A.S. (Minesa), which puts Santurbán at risk. Citing the precautionary principle, the resolution prohibits the granting of “new mining concessions, special exploration and exploitation contracts, (...) as well as new environmental permits or licenses for the exploration or exploitation of minerals” in the area until the necessary technical studies are carried out toward its definitive protection. This resolution does not affect agricultural, livestock or tourism activity in the area.However, we are concerned that the resolution leaves in force the concession contract with Calimineros, which has had a subcontract with Minesa to formalize [its small-scale mining activities] since 2020, and from which Minesa promises to buy and process mineralized material. We encourage the competent authorities to suspend evaluation of its environmental license application and extension of the formalization subcontract, due to potential environmental impacts on Santurbán and because it is effectively part of the Soto Norte project.The páramo and related ecosystems are highly sensitive, recognized for their role in water regulation, carbon capture, and the conservation of endemic biodiversity. The removal of vegetation cover and the fragmentation of ecosystems that mining in Santurbán would generate could affect the ecological balance, biodiversity, and the provision of ecosystem services essential for life; acidify and reduce the amount of available fresh-water; and break the ecological interconnectivity with other biomes and ecosystems, destroying their capacity to sequester carbon and causing irreparable damage.For these reasons, we appreciate that the resolution seeks to prevent mining development in this highly sensitive and environmentally important area, preventing degradation of the watersheds that arise from Santurbán and preserving the water cycle.Sebastián Abad-Jara, an attorney for AIDA, pointed out that "by protecting Santurbán, Colombia ratifies its commitment to meet global environmental goals in terms of biodiversity, climate and wetlands, and sets a high bar for the governments of other countries where these ecosystems are similarly threatened by mining activity, such as Peru and Ecuador.""We celebrate this declaration as an important first step toward the consolidation of the western side of the Santurbán massif as a permanent reserve area, definitively protecting this important water source, vital for all who depend on it," said Jen Moore, associate fellow at IPS - Mining and Trade Project.Viviana Herrera, Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, added that "this resolution is the result of the Committee for the Defence of Water and Páramo of Santurbán’s hard work, which has faced harassment and intimidation for its work in defense of the páramo, as well as disinformation campaigns about the supposed harmful effects of the resolution on agricultural activity."AIDA, IPS-Mining and Trade Project, MiningWatch Canada, CIEL and Common Frontiers Canada support the adoption of this protection measure for Santurbán. We also encourage the national and local government to carry out the necessary technical studies for its definitive protection, and to take preventive measures to avoid the cumulative environmental impacts of mining in the area given other projects that already have mining licenses. Furthermore, we reiterate the urgency of adopting measures to protect environment defenders in Colombia who stand up for the páramo.The Santurbán experience provides valuable lessons and should serve as an example to promote legislation for environmental protection in Latin America that focuses on the human right to water and the balance and integrity of fragile ecosystems, such as the páramo and other high-altitude ecosystems.#OurGoldIsWater Press contactsVictor Quintanilla (Mexico), AIDA, [email protected], +5215570522107Jennifer Moore, IPS, [email protected], +12027049011 (prensa IPS)Viviana Herrera, Mining Watch Canada, [email protected], +14389931264Alexandra Colón-Amil, CIEL, [email protected], +12024550253
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In 2018, the environmental organizations Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Greenpeace, and the NGO FIMA joined forces to confront the threat of the expansion of salmon farming in the southern waters of Chilean Patagonia. Since then, we have been actively working to expose and stop the impacts of intensive salmon production in pristine ecosystems, including special protected areas. In 2021, a scientific study of whale-ship interactions in Chilean Patagonia was published, including a video of a blue whale navigating a high-traffic area. According to the study, the world’s largest and most endangered mammal shares space with up to 870 vessels daily in Chilean Patagonia, one of its main feeding grounds. The study confirmed that 83% of the vessels were involved in the aquaculture industry.This finding shed light on a new facet of the environmental issues facing Chilean Patagonia, home to nearly 30% of the world’s cetacean species, including the endemic Chilean dolphin. This led us to commission a scientific report from a multidisciplinary team of experts to make the information publicly available. The results provided evidence of the impacts of salmon farming on cetaceans in Chilean Patagonia and highlighted the lack of studies and information needed to understand the magnitude and consequences of these impacts, as well as the true risk involved.In addition to complementing the efforts of civil society to demonstrate the urgency of halting the expansion of salmon farming in the country’s southern seas, we hope that this report will specifically draw attention to the real and potentially irreversible problem affecting these emblematic species. We also hope that the report’s recommendations will encourage the development of conservation measures for cetaceans, even in a context of insufficient knowledge, in accordance with the Precautionary Principle — recognized in the General Fisheries and Aquaculture Law, national legislation, and international law — which establishes the obligation to act in favor of environmental protection, even in the face of uncertainty. Finally, we hope that this report will motivate further research necessary to implement concrete and effective protective measures to make our waters a safe space for whales and dolphinsRead and download the executive summary
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The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) celebrates the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, which recognizes the rights to due process and participation of communities and workers in the closure of coal mining projects in the department of Cesar. This ruling comes after years of insistence by these groups, who filed a tutela action. In this case, AIDA contributed with a legal brief that includes the analysis it has conducted on the issue of closure and responsible exit in Latin America, from the perspective of the right to a healthy environment and other human rights.Below, we share the statement from the communities and workers on the occasion of the ruling.The Constitutional Court of Colombia issued the first ruling on mine closures in the country (T-029 of 2025). It guaranteed due process and, consequently, the effective participation of the communities and unions representing more than 20,000 people in the more than four municipalities affected by the environmental, social and economic impacts of the first irregular abandonment and closure of large-scale coal mines in Colombia.We, a group of affected communities and dismissed workers from Cesar and Magdalena, have led a legal action for more than four years to ensure a public dialogue through a large concertation table where the communities, dismissed workers, local authorities and the affected citizens in general of the mining municipalities of La Jagua, El Paso, Becerril and Ciénaga can know and participate in the definition of compensation and restoration measures that the multinational Glencore - Prodeco must carry out in these municipalities as part of its mining abandonment and closure plan, which is in the process of being approved by the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA).In this ruling, the court determined that the Seventh Administrative Court of Valledupar violated the fundamental right to due process by considering that the multinational company had complied with this participation process with a SINGLE socialization meeting held in November 2022 in these municipalities, which is clearly insufficient and does not comply with what was agreed in the minutes of the meeting, where the commitment of the parties was to convene the GREAT TABLE OF DIALOGUE AND CONCERTATION in the presence of the affected population of these four municipalities.The court ordered to initiate again the opening of the contempt proceeding against the legal representative of Grupo Empresarial PRODECO S.A. and to review the compliance with the judgment and the agreement contained in these minutes.We, as communities and unions of the mining corridor, supported by national and international civil society organizations, and represented in court by attorney Rocío Torres Bobadilla, consider that this public roundtable may be the last opportunity for us to make a balance of what has happened in our territories after 25 years of exploitation and achieve measures for Glencore to compensate and restore all the impacts caused.Therefore:We invite Glencore - Prodeco to a constructive dialogue, to avoid evasive maneuvers and to respect the importance of this judicial decision.We request the Colombian State, headed by the ANLA, the DEFENSORIA and the PROCURADURÍA to accompany us in this process, support this judicial decision and strengthen our protection measures to guarantee our safety as leaders in this process to comply with this ruling.We request national and international organizations to continue supporting us to guarantee a real and effective participation and that this GREAT CONCERTATION TABLE is fulfilled. Finally, we ask the entire population of the country and especially of the municipalities of La Jagua, Becerril, El Paso and Ciénaga to accompany us, support us and join us in a great process to DEFEND THIS JUDICIAL DECISION which is HISTORIC for our territory in order to restore and compensate the serious environmental and social impacts caused by the irregular mining closure and to find measures to address the great poverty and unemployment we are experiencing.Join us to be heard, to heal our territories and to recover our economy.Signed byJunta de acción comunal de BoquerónConsejo Comunitario Afrodescendiente Coafrovis de la Victoria de San IsidroRed de Mujeres del Municipio del Paso Asamblea Campesina del Cesar por la Restitución y el Buen Vivir Asociación de Usuarios Campesinos (ANUC) el Paso Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Carbón (Sintracarbón) Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Industria Minero-Energética (Sintraminergetica) Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores Mineros Asociación del Reguardo Sokorhpa del Pueblo Indígena Yukpa Consejo Comunitario Caño Candela de Becerril Junta de Acción Comunal del Barrio Don Jaca en Santa Marta Corregimiento de Cordobita en Ciénaga (Madgalena) Vereda el Hatillo Representante Junta de Acción Comunal Sororia de la Jagua de Ibirico Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social Tierra Digna Rocío Torres Bobadilla- defensora de derechos ambientales National and international organizations and defenders that SUPPORT US:Universidad del Magdalena Universidad del Magdalena Clínica Jurídica Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA)London Mining Network PAX Holanda PAX Colombia CNV InternationaalSolifonds Multiwatch ASK Switzerland-Colombia Working GroupUrgewald Polen –Transiciones JustasAna Catalina Herrara - labor rights defenderÁngela Velandia Cruz – human rights defender
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