Constitutional Court Bans Mining in Colombian Andes

Almost 350 mining projects will have to cease their extraction activities inside the delicate mountain ecosystem known as the paramo.

Colombia's Constitutional Court ordered Monday an end to all mining activities in the country's paramo when it nullified an aspect of the 2014 National Development Plan that had allowed exploitation of the unique and delicate ecosystem.

Mining in the paramo — the area of the Andes mountains above the continuous tree line but below the permanent snow line — had been banned since 2011, but concessions granted before the ban was implemented were granted an exception.

The court's ruling said that exemption was invalid and that all extraction activities would be suspended, affecting approximately 347 mining concessions.

The complaint before the Constitutional Court was raised by environmental groups and lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Pole party.

“With Constitutional Court ruling we have protected the paramos of Colombia,” wrote Senator Ivan Cepeda on his Twitter account.

The court also dealt another blow to the development plan of President Juan Manuel Santos when it nullified a law that had allowed projects of “strategic interest” to supersede the rights of the those dispossessed of their lands.

Previously, evicted landholders were given plots of lands outside areas deemed to be of strategic interest.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the rights of victims of land dispossession must be respected and their claims to their lands had to be honored.

The court also returned the power to grant concessions to local authorities. The right to grant concessions in areas of strategic interest had previously been handled by the National Environmental Licensing Authority.

The 2014 National Development Plan was strongly critiqued when first introduced for being too friendly to foreign mining companies and transnational capital.

Source URL