Fight against illegal mining is one of the great environmental challenges of Ecuador, indicates diagnosis carried out by the CAN

Last Wednesday, December 15, in the morning, the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) presented the Andean Environmental Diagnosis. One of the most important conclusions of the study is that Illegal mining is one of the great environmental problems that Ecuador faces. That same day, but at night, a sinkhole affected the downtown area of ​​Zaruma, in El Oro.

Through the years, Both the central government and the Municipality of Zaruma have blamed illegal mining for what is happening in the city of Orense, since the soil has been weakened by illegal excavations.

So far there are no measures or authorities that have stopped this illegal extractive activity in various areas of the country. Joint operations have been carried out between the Police, the Ministry of the Environment, the Control Agency and even with the Army in cantons such as Ponce Enríquez or Pucará, in Azuay; in the Cordillera del Cóndor, in Zamora; Eloy Alfaro, Esmeraldas; or Buenos Aires, Imbabura, but illegal mining continues.

“Ecuador has great challenges in the face of environmental democracy, that is why in our recommendations we indicate that the country must have spaces of real and effective representation for its inhabitants, since problems and popular initiatives have been presented around extractive projects. It has a problem that is illegal mining and this is a problem that is replicated in the region”Says Pilar Zamora, director of the Colombian Space Agency, an institution that helped to make the diagnosis.

Military dismantle irregular mining camp that operated in Imbabura

Although the study highlights that the country is a benchmark in the region due to the concept of strategic sectors that it has in its Constitution and that this has helped frame actions to respect the environment, mentions that there are points to strengthen such as the integration in a “same language” of all the environmental information systems that exist..

And this is key to be able to lift the Andean Technology Platform, a tool that would facilitate the analysis, monitoring of the situation and decision-making in the face of environmental problems. The consolidation of this platform is part of the goals of the Andean Environmental Charter that was signed by Ecuador.

This document proposes guidelines for joint actions that allow progress in the fulfillment of agreements such as the objectives of sustainable development, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, among others.

In addition to the lack of unification of environmental information, the weakening of control bodies would also be added, affirms Byron Andrade, president of the Mining and Metallurgical Society, Ecuador section, and professor at UISEK University.

It indicates that the previous Government merged the Mining Regulation and Control Agency with the Hydrocarbons Regulation and Control Agency and the electricity regulation agency. He left a single body that is currently called the Regulation and Control Agency. With this merger, personnel were laid off and the new institution “does not have the technicians or the logistics to detect illegal mines.”

They confiscate weapons for military and police use inside a mine in Camilo Ponce Enríquez

Although illegal mining has impacted the country, environmental organizations affirm that legal mineral extraction also pollutes and that is why they have rejected the current government’s mining policy. However, Andrade assures that legal extraction has “many controls” and this sector is one of those that will boost the economy by creating jobs.

“It is not getting into the idea of ​​mining or nature. The two can coexist as long as environmental protection is met. Illegal mining has tainted a dignified activity (legal mining)”, dice. (I)