This new report presents the results of research to determine the extent and location of the footprint resulting from gold mining operations in the Essequibo Territory, an area located within Guyana’s de facto boundaries, but claimed by Venezuela and subject to the Geneva Agreement of 1966, signed by the United Kingdom, Venezuela and what was then the government of British Guiana.
By 2009 the tropical forests of the Essequibo Territory were considered to be among the best-preserved in the world. The report identifies:
1,499 mining sites, representing a total 1,091 km2 impacted by gold mining activity.
Between 2000 and 2021, the Essequibo Territory lost at least 135,318 ha of tropical forests. T
This destruction exceeds that of the gold mining footprint evident in Venezuela’s State of Bolívar, where unregulated mining activity is aggressively promoted by the Maduro regime’s Orinoco Mining Arc policy.
Visible Mining Footprint 2021 & 2022 in the Essequibo Territory
In the Essequibo Territory, the basins of the Potaro, Mazaruni and Cuyuní rivers, which are tributaries of the Essequibo River, were found to be affected the most by gold mining activity.
Annual gold production in the Essequibo Territory is estimated to be 19 tons, for which an estimated 29 tons of mercury is used each year.
The Georgetown government tolerates the use of mercury despite the fact that Guyana is signatory to the Minamata Convention, ratified in 2014.
The costs of this ecological impact are inestimable, and are reflected in the loss of bioprospecting, the carbon sink, wood and non-wood products, recreational spaces, and plant and animal species, among other things, to which one must add the costs of soil and water reclamation efforts in response to sedimentation in the rivers, and mercury contamination of the soils and waters.
This mining activity overlaps the indigenous territories, to the detriment of the territorial and cultural rights of the indigenous peoples. Venezuela has an obligation to offer an alternative to this ecological and cultural destruction.
Comparison of Mining Areas: Bolivar state vs. Essequibo Territory
Conclusions & Recommendations
Guyana has enabled and encouraged the destruction of ecosystems in the Disputed Area west of the Essequibo River as part of an unsustainable policy of exploitation of natural resources, and irresponsibility in the face of environmental damage.
This study shows that the Georgetown government has no control over this space, does not have a sustainable development policy, is not interested in its conservation, and does not have the will to protect it ecologically; instead, in its exploitive and short-term eagerness, the Georgetown government issues permits and concessions, instead of seeing this geographical space as part of a future Guyana.
The expansive, unrestricted and irresponsible mining policy as it affects human rights and the environment, as implemented in a de facto way by Guyana over the Essequibo Territory, to which Venezuela has title and sovereignty rights, represents a violation of the mechanisms of international law and the good offices used for the resolution of conflicts. This observed behavior must be evaluated and taken into account when it comes time for the appropriate judicial bodies to issue a ruling in accordance with the Geneva Agreement of 1966.
This Guyanese policy centered on extraction causes damage to human health, especially of indigenous peoples of the Essequibo Territory and generates irreversible damage to the native cultures and their very existence.
Forest Loss and Mining Activity on the Border Between Bolivar and the Essequibo Territory by 2020
Video of mining in the Essequibo Territory
Clic on the image and visit the VE360 Storymap on the Essequibo for more information or clic here
