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Newsletter #28 | February 2022     
Update on the situation of Canaima 

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Update sent to UNESCO on Mining & Unsustainable Tourism 


In recent years, there has been a significant expansion of mining activity within Canaima National Park (CNP), a World Heritage Site (WHS). This situation is sustained within the framework of a strategic policy known as the Orinoco Mining Arc, by which the Nicolás Maduro regime promotes mining in an immense geographical area. 

It is worth noting that mining is prohibited within CNP-WHS (as in all national parks in Venezuela) and is an unacceptable activity within the international standards of Protected Areas (IUCN). Furthermore, within the framework of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, World Heritage Sites should not be subject to mining. However, after 4 years of monitoring, SOSOrinoco has witnessed and documented how this activity continues to expand, affecting ecologically important natural formations, plunging the Pemón people into violence and polluting rivers and indigenous communities with mercury. 

By the end of 2019, SOSOrinoco and Correo del Caroní had detected an impact of 1,034 hectares by mining activity within CNP-WHS, distributed in 59 sectors along the Caroni River, the Carrao River, Kukenán and Caruay (Figure 1), which mainly affect the riparian forests, “morichales” and the lower montane forests.

 
Mining expansion: 1,034 ha (2019) to 1,540 ha (2020)
 
To analyze the trend of the increase in mining within CNP-WHS in the last 20 years and to update the current impacted area by mining activity, we used our data and the Global Forest Change products (Hansen et al. 2013), Globeland30 (National Geomatic Center of China, 2014) and MapBiomas Amazonía, Based on these products, we have calculated the area taken over by mining activities, every five years from 2000 to 2020 (Figure 2). 

Our calculations show that mining within CNP-WHS for the latter year has spread to at least 1,540 hectares, 8.4 times the area calculated for 2000. This activity has progressively expanded at an average rate of 80 hectares per year (Figure 2), the results of the last ten years being particularly striking, in which the affected area is almost double that of the previous 10 years (2000 -2010).
The result of this expansion translates into greater environmental devastation and its scale of influence grows daily. In fact, our review shows that the loss of forest from the year 2000 in CNP-WHS is the third largest of all the National Parks in the country, covering at least 29,000 hectares by 2020. Since 2000, an average of 1,483 hectares have been lost per year and this situation has intensified since 2015 within the limits of CNP-WHS, reaching a rate of 3,600 hectares per year, which means that in the last 5 years the forest loss has occurred twice as fast compared to the 15 previous years.
Total Hg concentration (ppm) in hair samples from selected individuals.
Source: SOSOrinoco, 2021
Among the Pemon people there is mercury in their bodies,  exceeding in most cases the safety threshold established by the World Health Organization. However, there is a lot of variability in concentrations between the sampled population and the evaluated locations. A report by SOSOrinoco details the mercury crisis.

There was no evidence of a direct relationship between the concentrations of Hg in hair samples and their activities or proximities to the mines, which suggests an entry of this toxic element through sources such as food (for example consumption of local fish) and/or water.

There is vulnerability in the population of children, since the highest concentrations were evidenced in samples of children under 18 years of age who do not work in mines. It is important to inform these communities about this risk. 
We have also found proof of mining rafts on the Caroní River and its tributaries, within the national park. At least 10 rafts could be counted through very high resolution satellite images.

Access to very high resolution images of different times is necessary to monitor the activity of the rafts in the sectors of greatest ecological vulnerability.
Video of the mine and the mining rafts in Aripichi, Caroní River

Party on the summit of a sacred mountain


The news of the party at the top of the tepuy raised an unexpected and unprecedented wave of indignation in the Venezuelan media and social networks, which even generated an echo in international media. Beyond the illegality of this activity, according to the Venezuelan protection laws on national parks, the fact that it took place in the midst of the current extreme economic and social precariousness in which the vast majority of Venezuelans, generalized impoverishment, and the closure of all democratic avenues to resolve the very serious political crisis that is the fundamental cause of this situation, has generated a virulent reaction of indignation, which is reflected in some of the caricatures here below.
 
Read articles about the controversy here
Interviews and opinion pieces here
Statement by SOSOrinoco on parties on the summit of tepuis

A National Park is a superlative, exceptional natural space that belongs to all Venezuelans, which due to its immense value, not only ecological but also symbolic, must be treated with veneration and respect, as a natural SACRED TEMPLE. Tepuis mountains are sacred and highly respected by the Pemón people, the ancestral inhabitants of Gran Sabana and Canaima.

A Natural World Heritage Site (recognized by UNESCO) is a creation of Nature that is considered one of the Planet’s most extraordinary and valuable places, therefore the country that owns it must guarantee to all of Humankind that this condition of grandeur will remain unchanged forever.

Canaima National Park, a World Natural Heritage Site, is governed by the Partial Regulations of the Organic Law for Land Use and Planning on Administration and Management of National Parks and Natural Monuments, Decree No. 276, published in the extraordinary Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela No. 4,016 dated 06/09/89.

 

Statement by SOSOrinoco on unsustainable events and tourism in Canaima, a World Heritage Site

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