Paramo delimit Vetas https://corrillos.com.co/2020/09/inician-mesas-de-trabajo-en-vetas-en-proceso-de-delimitacion-de-santurban/
Work tables begin in Vetas in the delimitation process of Santurbn
With the beginning of a new stage in prevention measures to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the inhabitants of 40 municipalities involved in the delimitation of Santurbn also received the news that the Ministry of the Environment will develop a series of roundtables. I work as part of the concertation phase.
This Friday, September 4, a process that, for more than 10 years, has been characterized by slowness and uncertainty will be reactivated.
The communities involved in this process have been waiting for the delimitation of Santurbn since 2010. In that year, mining activities in the moorlands were prohibited and the need to limit them was defined. Although in 2017, the Constitutional Court granted a year to the Ministry of the Environment to delimit the Pramo de Santurbn, the Ministry failed to comply with the order and the process has been delayed amid several extensions.
This year, the situation generated by the pandemic became a new scenario of uncertainty for the advancement of the delimitation. Against this background, the citizen oversight Dignidad Minera instituted a protection action before the Administrative Court of Santander, to request the non-suspension and the use of the technological tools available to advance in the concertation phase. This action highlighted the need to guarantee the right of the paramunos to real and effective participation.
Community persistence
The decision to enable the development of these working groups comes after weeks and months of insistence from the community. In Vetas, for example, the availability of connection and tools were demonstrated to continue the delimitation process virtually. In addition to demonstrating Internet access for the inhabitants of the municipality, the survey carried out also confirmed their interest in participating in the technical tables of the process.
In that municipality, the inhabitants hope that the work tables will be the setting they have waited for so long for the construction of agreements and commitments and guarantee a territorial vision in the delimitation of the Pramo. For now, they are waiting for the first meeting to be held on September 4.
“The community of the municipality of Vetas receives the news of the reactivation of the process with great expectation. We hope that this is the setting for discussion and agreement on legal, technical, and socioeconomic aspects, ” said the municipality's Personera, Anglica Mara Garca.
From the technical point of view, the community has requested that the platform enabled by the Ministry have a capacity for more than 500 people connected and have different options for receiving inquiries.
New questions
In addition to taking care of their health while exercising their right to participation, the paramunos expect to receive clear information about the impact that the work groups will have. As Ivonne Gonzlez, director of Dignidad Minera, assures us, “we perceive an ambiguous and contradictory message from the Ministry: on the one hand, it has programmed the so-called working tables, which will be part of the activities carried out in the concertation stage; but on the other hand, the Ministry points out that they are not tables for consultation ” .
Beyond a conceptual issue, the communities wonder about the value and relevance that the Ministry gives to the concertation process. For the inhabitants of the municipalities involved in the delimitation of Santurbn, the socio-environmental conflict that arose as a result of the process, and which has been going on for more than 10 years, requires more than one day to solve it.
As explained by the former mayor of Vetas, Orlando Rodrguez Ramrez, the paramunos are the most interested in moving the delimitation forward while respecting their right to participation. “ We fear that these tables will not be taken into account in the consultation phase for the delimitation of the pramo. What is significant here will be how important these tables will be for the Ministry, and whether they will be a simple requirement or a space for real agreement ” , assured Rodrguez.
For the president of the Municipal Council of Vetas, Luz Helena Landazbal, it is also important to recognize the work of the paramunos in the protection of this ecosystem and listen to their questions regarding the process.
"We hope that this period of consultation will serve so that the decisions that are made, from the technical and legal point of view, allow the community to benefit, take into account the paramunos and, most importantly: that citizen participation is respected , " said Landazbal .
These work tables can become the ideal setting to respond in a real and effective way to the questions of the community regarding the process. For the paramunos, this will be a new opportunity to socialize their delimitation proposal, which comprehensively ensures the conservation of the moor, the protection of water and the food security of the neighboring families of Santurbn.