Colombia: UN report shows the threat of gold mining and ranching on National Parks
“Colombia’s National Parks under threat from gold mining and ranching”, 18th March 2020
…Illegal gold mining is ravaging Colombia’s forests at an alarming rate, claims the 2019 report of the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report warns that 48% of all illegal activities are taking place within the country’s National Parks…
In cratered landscapes that cover large swathes of the country’s Pacific region where artisanal mining has taken root at the mercy of criminal networks, the UNODC report details not only the “very serious threat” to the country’s biodiversity, but towards the integrity of the predominately Afro-Colombian populations who face extorsion, human trafficking, and the sexual exploitation of children.
The document, elaborated by the United Nations, U.S Embassy and Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, and titled Explotación de Oro aluvión (Alluvial Gold Exploitation), reveals the close ties that exist between gold mining and financing of armed criminal groups, including FARC dissents, operating in the departments of Antioquia and Chocó…