Although Vetas was the first municipality in Santander to agree on the delimitation of the Santurbn pramo, 10 months later, the local administration continues with its arms crossed to initiate processes of formalization and adaptation of the territory because the Ministry of the Environment has not yet agreed with the other 39 municipalities, Santander and Norte de Santander, which share areas of that ecosystem.
The mayor of Vetas, Hernn Bautista, expressed his concern about the increase in illegal mining in the absence of an administrative act that establishes the limits. Reason for which he made a call to the Ministry of Environment to partially eliminate Santurbn in his municipality.
“The request is that the municipality be partially limited because we cannot wait for the other municipalities to reach an agreement . We have been in this situation for 4 years and there is legal uncertainty, the municipality needs tools to advance in mining formalization and continue conserving with greater control”, said Mayor Bautista.
Despite the president's request, the Environment Minister, Susana Muhamad, denied the request and explained that the new delimitation of Santurbn is a social agreement that cannot be done partially.
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“The delimitation of Santurbn must be general and not partial, until it is agreed with all the municipalities, the territory cannot be delimited, also because that is the constitutional order through ruling T-361 of 2017. This has to lead us in the end, to a social agreement that conserves the water and the functionality of the moor ”, confirmed the Minister of the Environment.
Vetas is located in the province of Soto Norte, it has 9,242 hectares and of these 6,687 will be protected, which corresponds to 72.4% of the territory. For ancestral mining, 6% of the territory that was left outside the conservation area will be destined.
In Santander, only three municipalities, Vetas, El Playn and Matanza, have agreed on the delimitation of the Santurbn pramo.