 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ecuador
Solidarity
Network |
|
|
|
"Of all those expensive and uncertain projects which bring bankruptcy upon the greater part of the people that engage them, there is none perhaps more perfectly ruinos than the search after new silver and gold mines." -Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations. |
|
|
|
|
|
"The right to contaminate is a fundamental incentive for foreign investment".
Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan Historian. |
|
|
|
|
Mining |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Mining Process. Metallic mining basically consists of 4 stages: prospecting, exploration, exploitation, and recuperation. Exploitation is by far the most environmentally destructive as it requires deforestation and the creation of massive amounts of waste material, much of it toxic, that remain on site for decades, even centuries, threatening rivers, aquifers, and local communities. |
|
|
|
World Bank. The World Bank and Ecuadorian National government, beginning in the early 1990's, began an initiative to increase international investment in Ecuador's mineral sector. While Ecuador has some small gold mining in the southern part of the country, which has caused tremendous environmental degradation, mining investment in Ecuador has been relatively small, especially compared to other Andean nations such as Peru and Bolivia. The new program, called Prodeminca, cost 24 million dollars, financed in part by World Bank money and a 14 million dollar World Bank loan, which became part of Ecuador's growing foreign debt of nearly 14 billion. The aims of Prodeminca project were to create a geological map of Ecuador's mineral resources, which would then be available to international mining companies. This project essentially subsidized mining's prospecting phase. The idea was that if Mining companies already have some of the work done for them they will be more apt to come to Ecuador for further exploration, especially in open-pit mines. According to Ministry of Energy and Mines, over half of Ecuador's territory is now open for large-scale mining, especially in the Sierra region and along the Andean flanks, where almost half of Ecuador's population lives. Unlike oil investment, Mining would involve and affect a much larger population. In 1998, as a part of package of new legal reforms called Trole II, Ecuador's mining laws were changed radically.
Acording to the new law, now in effect:
- Mining Companies are given one concession, for all phases, for a period of thirty years. Previously mining companies had to recieve a new concession to enter into a new phase, after review of thier environmental record by the Ministry of the Environment.
- The Ministry of Energy and Mines, the same agency responsible for promoting mining, is responsible for monitering mining activities, including environmental violations. A role previously held by the Ministry of the Environment, which, as a consequence, has lost much of its authority to protect the environment.
- Mining and other extractive industry used to be prohibited in protected national parks. With passage of the new law, they are now open for mining and oil exploitation.
- All Royalties, previously 3% of profits that were paid to the National Government, have been eliminated. |
|
|
|
Intag. The Intag region, with a population of 18,000, extends over 2,000 square kilometers along the Northwestern flanks of the Ecuadorian Andes. From the snow capped Cotacachi Volcano (over 13,000 ft) at its eastern end Intag falls westward over 200 km to its lowest point of only 2,500 ft above sea level. Intag is the southern "buffer" zone to the large Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, the largest protected area of Ecuador's western forests. The Toison mountain range, a range older than the Andes, juts westward from the Cotacachi volcano and forms the natural border between Intag and the National Park. Intag's geographical diversity is only paralleled by its biological and human diversity. Intag, together with the National Park, forms the largest extension of Western Ecuadorian Forests that remain today. It is part of two of the world's 25 biological hotspots; defined by Conservation International as "the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on Earth". |
|
|
|
Mitsubishi. As a result of the World Bank program, and a seperate agreement between Ecuador and Japan. In 1993, Bishi Metals, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, arrived to Intag to explore for copper along the Toison range. At first they were well recieved in the community of Junin, where they set up camps and quickly realized they were sitting on a very large copper deposit, which they would exploit through an open-pit mine along the Toison. However, this large copper deposit was/is in fact only 0.71% copper, meaning that over 99% of the deposit is not copper and would be left at the site as waste material, much of it toxic.
|
|
|
|
Resistance to Mining. The communities close to the mining camps were initially in favor of mining and even began working for the company, although the work was very difficult. However, a grassroots environmental group began organizing in Intag opposed to the mining project and led community workshops on the potential dangers of mining. Over time the communities themselves began to question mining, especially after reading the Environmental Impact Study, written by a Japanese engineer. The Impact Study stated that affects of the mine would be:
-Relocation of 100 families from 4 communities.
-Massive deforestation, leading to local climate change, major impacts on the National Park, and eventually desertification.
-Increase in Crime with the presence of a mining town, with an initial population of 5,000, mostly male. -Major contamination of local rivers.
During the rainy season in 1997, when there were no workers present, 200 people from seven surrounding communities took control of the mining camps. After requests for a meeting with the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Company were ignored, the contents of the camps were removed, inventoried and stored in the community of Junin for later transfer to the Company, and then the camps were burned and a sign left that said "Not Another Step for Miners in Junin". |
|
|
|
Alternatives. Due to such strong local opposition, along with a national and international campaign, Mitsubishi left Intag. Since then the communities, working with DECOIN, have looked for economic alternatives to mining that are more environmentally sustainable. Now there is a successful coffee growers association that produces shade-grown fair trade organic coffee and community run conservation and eco-tourism projects. |
|