https://www.vanguardia.com/economia/local/historica-definicion-de-la-linea-del-paramo-en-vetas-DC4567005
After the first day of meetings of the concertation phase for the delimitation of the Santurbn pramo in Vetas, consensus was reached on one of the first and most important points in this phase: the delimitation of the pramo line.
The inhabitants of Vetas, three hours from Bucaramanga, have experienced a general joy since the night of Monday, December 29. After a day of meetings, the vetans obtained the approval of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development on the issue of defining the pramo line.
You can read: Concertation phase meetings begin in the delimitation process of the Santurbn pramo in Vetas.
According to Ivonne Consuelo Gonzlez, president of Asomineros and spokesperson for the Dignidad Minera de Vetas oversight, it is an achievement that benefits the almost 2,000 inhabitants of the municipality.
“More than 466 years of mining were honored at a single site, protecting our ecosystem with which we have coexisted. We demonstrated the cartographic errors that even left the urban case in. Vetas is 100% mining. So we commit ourselves to do a sustainable mining, to work hand in hand with the institutions and to make an environmental mining ordering of the territory ”, said Gonzlez.
For the union leader, the main part of the vetanos' victory was to be heard by the National Government and to have the delegates of the Environment Ministry present for more than a month to verify on the ground what was being planned.
“Vetas was reborn. A legal limbo that allowed a lot of illegality is over. We are proud to continue being miners. We present a solid, clear and responsible proposal. And we were heard. We renounce many titles because they are neither of the territory nor ancestral. We are going to be aware of the other five missing points ”, indicated the veedora.
In this regard, Hernn Bautista, mayor of Vetas, assured that the proposal was always for the Ministry of the Environment to respect small-scale mining and they promised to work for the protection of ecosystems and ensure the conservation of protected areas.
“The risk we had was that Vetas could disappear. But already with this delimitation, approved by the Ministry, we enforced small-scale mining, the traditional trade of miners that has nothing to do with mega-mining, ”said the president.
In the proposal, it was established that about 70% of the Vetas territory will be within the Pramo line and the other 30% will house agricultural, mining and commercial activities, since the urban area of the municipality is included in this space.
“The 586 hectares of mining title for small mining that Vetas had were respected. This means that the miners of the municipality no longer have the uncertainty of losing their jobs, they will not be stigmatized, they feel calm and more proud of being miners, with an ancestral right to exercise their trade without affecting the environment, "said Bautista.
Thus, in Vetas there are still five key points to be agreed: design or create a counterclaim or substitution program for prohibited work, create a resolution management control system, protection parameters for water sources, coordination instance between authorities and configure a financing model that facilitates the articulation of contributions and the obtaining of resources.
The meetings will continue until next December 3.