The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation presented its observations to the draft project of the National Government aimed at regulating the declaration and delimitation of temporary natural reserves, a decree that intends to establish new prohibitions for the development of mining activities in the country.
For the delegate of Environmental, Mining, Energy and Agrarian Affairs, it is strange that in the Justifications of the Decree Project it is indicated that it does not imply any economic impact, on the contrary, it is evident that its application could generate in practice a situation of veto and/or paralysis regarding mining exploration and exploitation activities.
The observations of the Public Ministry also specify that the Draft Decree does not contemplate that the purpose of declaring temporary nature reserves is to preserve natural resources while achieving sufficient certainty about the delimitation and zoning of protected areas. Therefore, after carrying out the studies, there could be areas that do not belong to the definitive polygon, which cannot be compatible with other types of activities, such as mining.
Likewise, the Attorney General’s Office refers that within the framework of a measure that must be purely provisional, the Decree Project grants the competence to the environmental authority to make definitive decisions regarding the continuity of mining exploitation activities, through the determination of measures aimed at the definitive closure of mining operations.
The observations also include the need to analyze, from different sectors, the social, economic, and legal consequences that could be derived from the eventual issuance of the National Draft Decree, also stating that the National Government does not have absolute jurisdiction over the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources of the Nation, so any decision-making that is made must have the due participation of the citizenry, a principle ratified by Colombia in the Escazú Agreement.
Finally, the prioritization of the socialization of the project with the citizenry and the participation of all sectors in its structuring, were some of the comments sent to the project: “By which criteria are established to declare and delimit temporary natural resource reserves within the framework of the environmental mining ordinance and other provisions are issued”.
