Mining Transitions Toward a Better Future at Peace with Nature

Abstract

At the COLOMBIAN ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMIT 2019, the panel "Mining Transition for a Better Future at Peace with Nature" was held, focused on recognizing the severity of the environmental, social, institutional, and armed-conflict problems caused by the extractivist development model. Solving these problems requires a societal project grounded in education, citizen participation, and control of extractivism and consumerism; territorial planning to protect ecosystems; national coordination among the various regional, ethnic, and municipal mobilizations that prohibit or regulate mining in their territories and defend peace and the right to life; the elimination of Investment Agreements in Free Trade Agreements; full compliance with the Constitutional Principles of the Right to a Healthy Environment, Precaution, Subsidiarity, Solidarity, and Concurrence; continuous improvement of production technologies to prevent environmental and social degradation; and regulation of environmental licensing so that Environmental Impact Studies are carried out by the State, as thoroughly as possible, rather than by the company requesting the license.