|
|
The times are very short for large projects
The greatest concern in the industry is that by reducing up in five months time lose the licensing process in the level of demand, especially in high-impact projects.
"Not the same factory arequipes riding in Cali that [gold mine] The Colossae, a small quarry a hydroelectric. To think that everything can be solved in five months is to ignore the complexity of some projects and some fragile ecosystems, "said Manuel Rodriguez Becerra, Prime Minister of the Environment and one of the biggest critics of the lack of public debate that has surrounded this reform. "We could end up forcing officials to give an answer even if they have doubts," says Julio Carrizosa, Inderena former manager who was instrumental in creating the ministry in the nineties.
One major change that brings the reform are to introduce an oral stage in which the company has documents that several recognized as useful only if it does not end up becoming the space where the more technical issues are discussed. Another is that Anla may request additional documents only once, a restriction in practice already existed but its officials jumped marking requests as "clarification of information."
In terms of timing Colombia handles similar times to many countries, such as La Silla showed a year ago to compare the licensing processes in ten countries . In some where it is shorter, such as Canada, this is due in part to their already well-mapped information on soils, water, biodiversity and ecosystems, so that companies are based on that information to engage their Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA ) to the authorities.
|
|
|
Not enough people to load the package
One of the biggest unknowns about the fastest licenses is how Anla be prepared, which is barely two years after its creation and this week is debuting new director , Fernando Iregui- and regional autonomous corporations to make those decisions in less time.
According to all the people consulted by La Silla, currently none of them have the skills nor the people to do it and the government has so far not explained how those shortcomings will be corrected.
Inside the Anla the biggest problem is that there are two crucial groups of technicians, one assessment and one follow-up but the first, which had a huge volume of requests represadas- concentrates most technical and resources. Both even originally recruited for track ended up working in assessment, so the monitoring capability that the entity has existing projects is weak.
"There is even a study, which makes industrial engineers, showing the potential impact of the distribution of tasks within the plant staff to see if they are heavily loaded and whether to hire people," says environmental lawyer Carlos Lozano Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (Aida).
That is something that is felt more acutely in the autonomous corporations, among politicization and fewer specialized regions-technical staff have a great limitation. Some of them like Corpoboyacá or CRC del Cauca have deficits of more than 3 billion dollars for these issues, according to Mauricio Cabrera, former chief comptroller for the environment and today part of World Wildlife Fund.
In fact, one of the key recommendations made by the OECD-the 'club of good practice' that Santos seeks to enter and has become the navigation plan II is to strengthen his government technical institutions in the environmental sector. That would be even more compelling if a flood of new projects coordinated by the Vice President arrives Germán Vargas Lleras or green light when seeking new projects that use complex technologies such as fracking to exploit unconventional oil and gas.
|
|
|
Some rules are softened, but not others harden
Although licensing reform seeks to give a roll to process rather than to the requirements of each type of project, there are some modifications that draw attention of the industry.
For example, the need to take leave for the second lanes on a highway or tunnels that are adjacent, for improvement works and considered according to several experts, regardless if they are in geologically sensitive areas like La Linea was removed.
Instead, the license for mining exploration stage, it was compulsory to the Mining Code of 2001, the last minister-and former director of the Anla- was not introduced Luz Helena Sarmiento promised after consulting Santos and OECD also recommended.
|
|
|
If today there is little involvement of local communities, will be much less
Another fear is that, by streamlining the licensing process consulting local communities to become "express participation." In fact, it is common that often audiences are actually communities socialization projects where communities have no voice, which in turn generates often end in brawls and disputes with companies.
"If things are as well as the participation is precarious, at what point will you give? It will come back I participate, you participate, they decide, "says Gloria Amparo Rodriguez, who leads the area of environmental law at the University of Rosario and is one of thegreatest experts in consultation in the country. "You said nothing about participation.The decree says there will be, but does not say how or when. "
She and other environmental advocates fear that the same logic prevails in the consultation, which Vargas Lleras-the spearhead of the execution of Santos II described as slowing talanquera great works in the country and has even qualified "extorsive".
According to Rodriguez, 45 of the 77 decisions of the Constitutional Court on issues of consultation have been won by the communities, highlighting the flaws in the areas of participation for ethnic communities. If that happens with afros and indigenous, wherein at least the process is regulated, in communities that are not ethnic difficulties are greater.
"The government seems to ignoring court decisions that ordered arrangements with the authorities and local communities that are affected by the projects for which the license is given," says César Rodríguez Garavito, environmental expert Dejusticia. With shorter periods, the margin agreement is further reduced.
That is the fact that there are no spaces for dialogue between the government, business sectors such as mining and hydrocarbons and local communities, where they can discuss their concerns and avoid tension escalates until recourses or referendums, as happenedPiedras (Tolima) and Tauramena (Casanare). And the only driver to create these spaces, Avanza, was nipped in the bud when just threw its first results.
|
|
|
There are increasing environmental conflicts and all end up in the justice
Given the escalation of social conflicts related to environmental issues in recent years, many in the industry fear that the expeditious adoption of large-scale projects could fire them even more.
If the lack of opportunities for participation is one of the causes of the rise in local tensions, one of its most notable effects is that more and more conflicts are ending up in the courts, beginning guardianships or class actions and reaching the end of Popular queries against mining and oil.
"Everything ends up in the judges, when the state who are responsible for preventing such conflicts. If that is going to be so, then we create an environmental justice court judges specialized in environmental law, because conflicts will increase, "says Gloria Amparo Rodriguez.
|
|
|
Information is ordered or easily consult
The information available both to make decisions to follow them, remains precarious.This can be seen in two problems: first, there is no unified information system that works for the sector entities to make more expeditious and better informed decisions. And second, there is no public portal that allows citizens to give oversight to the process.
Licensing reform raises the need for the Anla create a Geographic Information System to order this information, but it falls short because it does not even include technical inputs having the Ministry or other neighboring states like Ideam.
"It's like the Bogota Metro studies: fifteen years we have been talking about the need to unify this information. We have mapped the country a hundred times at the point of environmental impact assessments, but there is no system that gather, "says María del Pilar Pardo, former director of the Ministry of Forests and leading an environmental consulting ecosystems.
For Pardo and others interviewed by The Chair then it would strengthen the existing albeit rather weak and lacking in resources-Environmental Information System of Colombia (SIAC), adding they have organizations like the National Hydrocarbons Agency and research centers as the Humboldt Institute or NGOs such as The Nature Conservancy, WWF or Natura. That would allow you to analyze the potential impacts to a more regional scale-not just project-by-project and analyze trends. In fact, precisely the OECDrecommended the Government to strengthen it, to "give priority to information needed to support decision-making."
To this is added that public information on environmental licensing is very low and does not allow citizen control that can alert. Everyone recognizes that the licensing conditions are more demanding than in the days when it was a small directorate within the Ministry, but insist that there is no way to make an oversight.
Environmental Gazette publishes Anla resolutions without licenses often indicate which project is concerned, so do a targeted search or know what stage the process is virtually impossible without a right of petition or without going personally. In contrast, in Australia or Canada most provinces have an interface designed for anyone to see what licenses are ongoing and download the documentation.
|