Venezuela Urged to Protect its Last Frontier
10/29/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Venezuela Urged to Protect its Last Frontier
Source: Environment News Service
Date: 10/29/96
Author: Julio Cesar Centeno, PhD
Copyright (c) 1996 The EnviroLink Network
US$ = Bs.472.00
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October 29, 1996 - VENEZUELA'S ELECTRONIC NEWS - VHeadline No.145
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VENEZUELA URGED TO PROTECT ITS LAST FRONTIER
-- Special feature by Julio Cesar Centeno, PhD. --
MERIDA, Venezuela, (ENS) -- A proposal by the government of Venezuela to
open the state of Amazonas to logging and mining is creating an uproar of
indignation from many quarters. Protests have come not only from
non-government groups and academia, but from the Commission on the
Environment of the Senate itself.
The Commission has become the spearhead of a movement opposing this
action and requesting from the Presidency and other government agencies a
clear justification for the proposal. Instead of providing a reasonable
justification, the level of improvisation of the proposal became evident
when the reply from the presidency was reduced to asking the Commission
"why not" open the state to timber and mineral exploitation.
Now the European Parliament too is pressuring the Venezuelan government
not to revoke two Presidential decrees (numbers 269 and 2552) which
prohibit mining and logging in Amazonas.
The European Parliament passed a resolution last Thursday stating its
concern that "premature opening of the State of Amazonas to mining and
logging is causing serious environmental problems."
The European Parliament has a direct interest in the area as the
European Commission is financing an ECU 6.4 million project in Amazonas
being carried out jointly with the Venezuelan government. The project is
to develop and implement a management plan for conservation and sustainable
development of the Upper Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve -- currently
the largest protected area of rainforest in the tropics.
The October 24 resolution stated concern that illegal mining by
Venezuelan miners and Brazilian "garimpeiros" is already violating
indigenous rights and is likely to cause serious health problems resulting
in high mortality and serious epidemics among the Yanomami and other
indigenous peoples both within the Biosphere Reserve and more widely.
Noting that illegal logging and cross-border trade in timber is already
a problem on the middle Orinoco River, the resolution stated that
"controlling it appears to be beyond the capacity of local government
institutions."
The existing legal framework in Venezuela allows several competing
government agencies to grant mining concessions. In neighboring Bolivar
State to the north this has resulted in permits being given to mine
protected areas, causing serious disputes and obliging the Solicitor
General of the Republic's Office to intervene, the resolution observes.
The European Commission is directed by the resolution to raise these
matters with the Venezuelan government. In addition, the World Bank is
requested to address these matters with the government of Venezuela in its
mission to the country which began October 23.
Amazonas is truly Venezuela's last natural frontier. It is inhabited
by several of the few remaining indigenous cultures in the country, such as
the Yanomami, Yekwana, Piaroa, Warekena and others. It also contains some
of the most astonishing natural formations of the greater Amazon territory,
including mountainous formations and Tepuys associated to the Guayana
shield.
Bolivar Also Threatened Logging and Mining
The Orinoco River divides the country in two almost equal parts. North
of the river, remaining forests cover only one-fifth of the surface, and
are fractioned into severely degraded and isolated lots. About 90 percent
of the population lives in this half of the country.
South of the Orinoco, Venezuela has a long tradition of exploitation of
mineral resources - iron ore, bauxite and gold. In the 1980s concern
focused particularly on the extraction of timber and gold, due to the
extensive environmental and social damage associated with the carelessness
and irresponsibility with which most of these activities take place.
The state of Bolivar, located south of the Orinoco, about the size of
the United Kingdom, is 70 percent forested. But nearly three million
hectares (11,580 square miles) of natural forests have been given in timber
concessions here over the last 10 years. In the past few years gold mining
by dozens of companies has left a network of profound scars of
environmental and social degradation throughout the state.
The new National Development Plan (1996-1999) proposes to expand timber
concessions to nearly 12 million hectares (46,320 square miles). All new
concessions are to be located in the state of Bolivar, where forests are
known not only for their richness in commercial timber, but for their
particular wealth in bio-diversity and for their unique fragility.