Galway Gold - Vetas ****Vetas area mentioned...Galway Gold may want to issue a clarification on the news.
Santurbán already a park, but doubts remain
By: FELIX LEONARDO QUINTERO | 8:35 pm | January 8, 2013
Despite creating the reserve area, environmentalists call for clarity on mining rights.
In a surprise decision, the board of the Regional Corporation for the Defence of the Meseta de Bucaramanga (CDMB) Tuesday approved the declaration Santurbán Regional Natural Park , in the department of Santander. With this determination is shielded an area of 11,700 hectares, which is not able to make any kind of mining, farming and agriculture.
The designated area covers rural municipalities in California, Vetas, and Surata Charta, where more than 30 titles multinational miners seeking gold exploration. Until Tuesday it was unclear what will happen with the owners of those titles.
After a meeting that lasted for four hours, the environment minister, Juan Gabriel Uribe announced that, by unanimous decision of the 11 directors of the local CAR, approved the declaration. The presence of mining companies in the area of the moor sparked a controversy with environmentalists, who insist that their work threatening reservoirs where water is born who consume more than 2 million inhabitants of Bucaramanga and Soto northern province.
The importance of forests had been mentioned in the concept of the Research Institute for Bioresources Alexander Von Humboldt, who in November endorsed the initiative CDMB emphasizing the importance of the oak. "The Institute has made us fall into the error of not including oak ecosystems," said Minister Uribe.
Require clarity
July Acelas, director of the Citizen Observatory Corporation, criticized the lack of information regarding areas of multinationals, because, according to him, no such data can not guarantee the effectiveness of the park.
Sergio Luna, chairman of Santander Guilds, called for clear rules that do not affect the conservation of the wetlands and the legal activity of mining.
For his part, the director of Fenalco-Santander, Luis Alfonso Gomez, criticized the declaration, because its extension "is a mockery of the interests of the citizens of the region and it seems a move in favor of multinationals interested in gold mining ". Ludwig Arley Anaya, CDMB director, said that a meeting will identify areas and what to do with the mining and exploration that were included in the declaration.
"They will come agreements and environmental management plans," Uribe said.
FELIX LEONARDO QUINTERO
TIME
BUCARAMANGA
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