Exits for illegal gold mining in the Farallones and contamination with mercury

In this fight, the Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhamad, has indicated that actions against mining are at 70 percent. He recalled that after more than six months of planning, a gigantic operation was carried out against illegal gold mining that managed to regain control of the protected area, where there were no park rangers because the illegal actors had expelled them.

The operation managed to evict more than 800 miners, 16 people were captured and 11 mines imploded. All in the last year.

The Farallones National Natural Park is a biological corridor of 196,364 hectares that extends along the Pacific coast of Valle del Cauca and has a countless number of springs that guarantee life in and around the Farallones.

Recovering it is one of Mayor Alejandro Eder’s big bets and this has been stated to delegates of the United Nations (UN) for COP16, the most important conference on biodiversity on the planet that will take place on October 21. to the first of November.

But it is not an easy task. Illegal armed groups destroyed approximately 1,000 hectares of the park’s highest peaks, while extracting around 78 kilograms of gold per month, generating millions of dollars, according to information from the Ministries of Defense and Environment.

The authorities estimate that The forest on Farallones could take up to 20 years to regrow and its ecosystems would require up to 50 years to fully restore.

In this fight to recover the park there are operations of the National Police, through the Directorate of Carabineros and Environmental Protection, in coordination with the Ministries of Defense and Environment, as well as with the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), the Prosecutor’s Office, the Army, the Cali mayor’s office and the Government.

According to the commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, Colonel Carlos Oviedo, in the last year, the intervention reached 24 sinkholes with implosions to seal them.

However, the use of chemicals, mercury, cyanide and arsenic, in the same illegal mining exploitation has been affecting tributaries of the Cali River, in rural areas, such as Felidia.

That is why the Ministry of the Environment plans to invest around 3.7 million dollars in the restoration of the park, which will involve reforestation and the analysis of mercury levels in the bodies of water in the area.

Mercury is used to extract gold particles from the ground, but it is often dumped into rivers and streams, poisoning flora and fauna, as well as those residing in the region.

This call has been made by the Attorney General’s Office and the Person’s Office of Cali, over the years, out of fear that the guardian river of the capital of Valle del Cauca will be affected, as it contributes to the citizens’ aqueduct in the upper or upper areas. hillside, as well as in the north and in the center of Cali.

“Of the gold alluvium mining activity in the Valley, 95% corresponds to illegal mining, with the consequences that the bad environmental practices developed have for strategic ecosystems such as the Farallones of Cali,” said the attorney general for Environmental Affairs, Minero. Energy and Agrarian, Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero. He noted that although the mining titles granted in Valle del Cauca are for the exploitation of construction materials, the proliferation of illegal gold alluvium mining activity in the Farallones.

In this regard, the director of the Administrative Department of Environmental Management (Dagma), Mauricio Mira, said that the commitment of the District Administration to combat illegality in the Farallones is reaffirmed. This was done during the territorial round table against illegal mining and mercury contamination, convened by the Attorney General’s Office, this week.

Likewise, he pointed out the need to implement satellite surveillance against mining and deforestation in this natural and national park and reserve, which allows the institutions to react in a timely manner and mitigate the effects caused in this strategic ecosystem.

Mira considers it necessary to arrive with the entire public offer in order to change the paradigm of the illegal economy.

“We must come up with the payment scheme for environmental services and a Green Business scheme, which provide the opportunity to replace the illegal economy with a legal and environmentally sustainable one in the buffer zone. There, National Natural Parks cannot have any other type of activity, other than conserving and preserving their natural capital,” said the official.