BRIEF HISTORY OF RESISTANCE TO MINING IN INTAG, ECUADOR (April 2024)**
The Twins Waterfall. Llurimagua Mining Concession. (Carlos Zorrilla) –Computer translated– I. Before continuing, a brief, and partial summary of the facts and achievements since the last update 2017: La Decoin was awarded by the United Nations with the 2017 Equatorial Prize for our work in favor of conservation and support for sustainable development. It is […]
Read MoreCODELCO’S TROUBLED MINING PROJECT IN INTAG UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
For nearly 30 years, communities have worked to conserve, restore and defend the cloud forests of the Intag Valley in Ecuador, in what locals say is the longest continuous resistance movement against mining in Latin America.
The tropical Andes are considered the world’s most biodiverse hotspot, ranking first in plant, bird, mammal and amphibian diversity; however, less than 15% of Ecuador’s original cloud forests and only 4% of all forests in northwestern Ecuador remain.
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, plans to open a mine in the Intag Valley that would destroy primary forest and lie within the buffer area of Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve — a plan that experts say would be ecologically devastating and not worth the cost.
Communities are using the presence of two threatened frog species — previously thought to be extinct — at the mining site to challenge the project under the “rights of nature,” Ecuador’s constitutional guarantee that natural ecosystems have the right to exist, thrive, and evolve.
Efectos ambientales de la minería
((Traducido del ingles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_effects_of_mining 09-2022)) Los efectos ambientales de la minería pueden ocurrir a escala local, regional y global a través de prácticas mineras directas e indirectas. Los efectos pueden resultar en erosión , sumideros , pérdida de biodiversidad o la contaminación del suelo , las aguas subterráneas y las aguas superficiales por los productos químicos emitidos por los procesos mineros. Estos procesos también afectan a la atmósfera por las emisiones de […]
Read MoreTwenty-four reasons why Codelco shouldn’t mess with Llurimagua’s Intag mining project
Carlos Zorrilla updated March 2023) UPDATE MARCH 29, 2023: AFTER NEARLY 3 DECADES OF STRUGGLE, INTAG COMMUNITIES WIN! #25!! The Imbabura Provincial Court finally agreed with the communities and ruled against the Llurimagua mining project, revoking the environmental license and ordering a total cessation of all mining activity within the mining concession. The ruling was […]
Read MoreEl problemático proyecto minero de Llurimagua en Ecuador
Ahora que el arbitraje internacional solicitado por la gigante minera chilena Codelco contra el Ecuador está generando interés, me parece que es el momento perfecto para informar un poco al público sobre lo que hay detrás del arbitraje, y llamar la atención a la prensa por la información tan chapucera sobre este proyecto minero.
Read MoreEcuador’s Ecuador’s Problematic Llurimagua Mining Project
Now that the international arbitration requested by the Chilean mining giant Codelco against the Ecuador is attracting worldwide attention, it feels like the right time to inform the public a little bit about what is behind the arbitration, and call the press for such shoddy reporting on this mining project
Read MoreRecordar
A veces es necesario parar… y recordar lo que esta en juego, y por qué se lucha. El futuro de nuestra zona depende, en gran medida, en la capacidad de reaccionar a los impactos sociales y ambientales gravísimos previstos en el Estudio de Impacto Ambiental preliminar hecho por expertos japoneses para una pequeña mina […]
Read MoreMajor legal victory for endemic species in Ecuador and the Rights of Nature
The communities of Intag set a new precedent in their long struggle against mining “In a huge win for the environment, on Thursday 24 September a judge at the Cotacachi Court ruled that the Ministry of the Environment failed at its job of protecting species on the Llurimagua mining concession in northwestern Ecuador’s biodiverse cloud […]
Read MoreVendiéndole al mundo una catástrofe ambiental y social: El proyecto minero Llurimagua del Ecuador
Carlos Zorrilla El gobierno de Ecuador ha estado muy atareado últimamente tratando de vender su participación en el problemático proyecto de cobre Llurimagua a un tercero. En este momento es propiedad de dos compañías mineras estatales, la ecuatoriana ENAMI y la chilena CODELCO, la mayor productora de cobre del mundo. Se han mencionado grandes nombres […]
Read MoreWhen I think of the copper laying below Intag’s forests
When I think of the copper laying beneath Intag’s cloud forests the last thing I think about is clean energy for the poor of our planet. I know better. Rather, I think of death. I think of contamination of pristine rivers and streams with arsenic and lead that will last a thousand years. Of acid […]
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