3 million more to care for the Amazon

In order to face the threat from mining investments in the Colombian Amazon, several organizations are preparing themselves to create economic alternatives to the region so that such activities which are increasingly imminent can be more appropriately regulated without carrying such a damaging potential.

The European Union decided to donate 3 million Euros to support these initiatives, involving Natural National Parks, Patrimônio Natural and the Gaia Amazonas Foundation. According to information from the UN’s Convention on Biologic Diversity, this subsidy for the conservation of protected areas in Colombia would strengthen environmental governance between public authorities in Colombia, traditional authorities of indigenous people, base organizations and civil society dedicated to the conservation and sustainable development of the Amazon.

The financing, programmed to last 24 months, will enable the survival of local communities by means of strengthening the rendering of essential environmental services and the benefits they bring to the people, including food safety and assurance of fresh water, the generation of income and cultural and spiritual access for groups of indigenous people.

This initiative dreams of contributing for Colombia to have a new development model for the Amazon, organizing local communities so that they can use the tools that enable them to propose strategies and face the changes that are already at their doorstep, aside from contributing towards the sustainability of protected areas.

“What this new alliance seeks is to introduce the analysis of an economic sustainability and of new economies based on environmental services throughout the entire environmental governance theme, in order to deal with threats such as mining or oil exploitation”, says Ignacio Gómez, administrative sub-director for Gaia Amazonas. “If a scenario of payment for environmental services actually happens (with the REDD initiative), it will be necessary to have a certain power of governance for indigenous people and it will be also imperative to have a stricter forest monitoring”, he explains.

“Indigenous people, with their incursions into their own territories, would be able to make important contributions towards combining satellite surveillance with a ground level watch performed by the natives themselves”, he adds. The idea is that communities themselves conduct such surveillance actions with their own methods of handling natural resources.

Therefore, with this alliance, it is intended to get a head start to structure new projects that are based more on environmental services that the forest develops and not on extractivism activities, so that one can have the right arguments to forbid mining in certain places. “It is difficult to make a deal with the State with claims that one cannot allow mining without offering an alternative source of income”, explains Gómez.

Understanding the present and future economy of the Amazon

With a part of the funds derived from the European Union, the Patrimônio Natural, which is a pro-conservation fund, will be responsible for conducting a study to understand and financial dimension of present-day Amazon and its future profile.

“We wish to understand what mining will mean to the Amazon right from the economic and financial point of view, because in order to make financing for conservation feasible, it will be necessary to increasingly understand economies such as mining, oil exploitation, farming and livestock breeding and the development of infrastructures that are being planned for the Amazon, aside from understanding that the economic scenario in the region will change drastically”, claims Alberto Galán, the entity’s director.

“Already many mining titles have been granted, especially in 2008, 2009 and 2010 mainly in the zones of Guainía and Vaupés. Oil exploitation is also arriving at a fast pace. We are advancing with our negotiations with the National Hydrocarbons Agency to reach an agreement about zones of eventual exploitation and conservation zones, especially around the Chiribiquete Park (between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare)”, he adds.

Galán is of the opinion that there are great risks accompanying these investments, but there are also opportunities that must be anticipated. “The scale of intervention being planned for the Amazon will have a great impact and will generate demographic processes which we’ll need to understand. We want to keep our focus on this to work on conservation incentives”, he explains.

“Patrimonio Natural works towards the goal of the Amazon having permanent investments, which are also strategic and sufficient to conserve its natural and cultural heritage. The idea is to develop economic and financial tools for the development and incentives that promote an economy in which the conservation of biological and cultural diversity and the sustainable handling of biological resources can be the determining axis of social and institutional relations”, he asseverates.

Galán points out that a special emphasis is being placed on the economic aspect, because this is the supporting pillar of any type of intervention, since undoubtedly in a very short time the Amazon will receive money from mining and oil exploitation royalties.

A Colombian treasure The Amazon holds 15% of the world’s mining beds, especially of copper, lead, gold, tin and magnesium. The Colombian Amazon covers a total area of 38,518,209 hectares protected under the designations of national parks, forest reservations and natural reserves. According to Patrimônio Natural, there are today 61,000 hectares being used by mining operations and the production of hydrocarbons in the Macarena area of influence (the meeting point for the Andean, Amazonian and Orinoquian ecosystems, located in the department of Meta), with an expectation of 47,000 additional hectares. The Colombian Amazon is one of the best conserved areas in all of the Amazon Rainforest, however it faces major challenges to ensure its future, one of them being the development of full measures that can leverage the region’s resources and capacities, enabling and conveying sustainability to public, community and private initiatives towards conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.