The open-pit ban was announced a little over one month after President Xiomara Castro took office. Photo via Static.RTI
Currently, there are 217 mining concessions and reserves in the country, covering 131,515 hectares (324,981 acres), according to the Social Forum on Foreign Debt and Development of Honduras (FOSDEH). In 2020, more than 130 of them were near or inside Indigenous territory.
Since 2018, there has been a significant increase in the number of approved mining concessions, up by around 40%, according to FOSDEH.
“In these areas, there are high levels of conflict, criminalization, stigmatization and even murder of territorial and environmental defenders,” the organization’s report said.
In 2020, Mongabay reported on environmentalist Irma Lemus, who was forced to flee the country for protesting mining projects in the department of Colón, including one inside Carlos Escaleras National Park.
And earlier this year, six environmental defenders were jailed for resisting the development a mine, Los Pinares, in the town of Guapinol. The mine, located near Carlos Escaleras National Park, has allegedly compromised rivers and other water bodies that local communities rely on for drinking water.
Mining unions in Honduras have already expressed their concern for the thousands of jobs that could be lost, telling local media that they plan to enter into talks with the government. This suggests that the environment ministry’s plans to make Honduras “free of open-pit mining” may take some time to carry out.
Aura Minerals, which operates the San Andrés gold mine in Copán department, one of the largest mines in Honduras, said in a statement that it’s working with the environment ministry to better understand the future of its operations in the country.
Some conservationists say they are concerned about the possibility of a wave of lawsuits from mining companies that could slow down the government’s plans.
“We would love for this initiative to move forward,” CEHPRODEC’s Pineda said, “but we want it to be in accordance with the law, to possibly go through congress or different government bodies … to ensure that these actions are within the law.”
Banner image: Mountains of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Photo via Flickr/Lauri Väin.
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Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Activism, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Gold Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Murdered Activists
Central America, Honduras, Latin America
Source link : https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/honduras-bans-open-pit-mining-citing-environmental-and-public-health-concerns/
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Publish date : 2022-03-03 03:00:00
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