Important and urgent information concerning Canaima National Park (Venezuela
September 12, 2023
Respected Members of the Committee,
We have learned of the Venezuelan government representatives' attempts to modify the Draft Decision on Canaima National Park World Heritage Site (Venezuela). Although this Draft Decision does not reflect the full gravity of the situation, we believe it is positive and necessary as it currently stands. It is urgent and imperative that the Reactive Monitoring Mission go to Venezuela to verify the true state of the Site. We assure you that the situation is serious, for two reasons:
1) Illegal mining has not ceased to increase and there have been no effective measures by the authorities to stop it.
2) There is no effective administration on the ground by Inparques (the Venezuelan official national park management entity) or any other governmental authority to manage this site positively and effectively within the standards required by UNESCO. The capacity of the park rangers is an essential aspect that must be addressed in the inspection.
To support our assertion, we ask you to review the following reports that we have published. Most importantly, the first one on the list, published in early 2023, addresses the situation of the Site from an integral perspective following UNESCO's own guidelines:
UNESCO must have its own first-hand assessment, without intermediaries or political interference, of the reality of the Site, in order to comply with the spirit of the World Heritage Convention, for the benefit of Humanity and the people of Venezuela. The objectivity and technical expertise of the Reactive Monitoring Mission is urgently required to analyze the situation and to work with the State party to start finding solutions.
We would like to emphasize that it is not about Canaima facing "threats": the situation is one of real, tangible, and severe damages caused by illegal mining inside the park that is increasing monthly and whose impact is very noticeable. We recommend that the Committee not put so much emphasis on the National Strategic Development Zone, which does not spatially overlap with the property, but rather focus on the more than 1,000 hectares of open-pit mines that are currently operating inside the national park, and the dozens of mining rafts that are mobilized and hidden, when necessary, by illegal miners. It is a fact that much of this mining is being operated by indigenous people in collaboration with civilian and military authorities. In addition to the serious damage caused to the natural and landscape resources, intense mining is contaminating the waterways with mercury, seriously affecting the indigenous populations of the protected area and the towns located downstream of the Caroní River basin. Therefore, the reality of Canaima must be approached in a thoughtful and objective manner.
We recommend that the Committee and the Reactive Mission not limit themselves to inspecting the sites that the government takes them to, but should insist on going to the larger mines. SOSOrinoco has provided geo-referenced information on the location of all the mines that have been detected in Canaima National Park (see the linked reports). Mining rafts can be easily hidden, and the government will surely evict the miners that are operating in the park before the visit so that the mines will appear inactive and their traces will be explained as remnants of past activity that no longer exists, all of which is false.
The offer of a future expansion of the national park is nothing more than bluster to minimize the magnitude of the unacceptable existence of illegal mining. The protected area only covers the eastern basin of the Caroní River, therefore, any expansion of the area should be directed towards protecting the integrity of the upper Caroni River Basin, that is, its western bank, where mining activity is even more intense.
For all the above reasons, we respectfully request that the Draft Decision on Canaima not be modified and be approved as is.
Sincerely,
SOSOrinoco
*SOSOrinoco is an advocacy group started in 2018 by a group of experts inside and outside of Venezuela. We have been working anonymously, concealing the names of team members and witnesses, due to the high risk of doing this type of research in Venezuela. Our commitment has been to document and create an in-depth diagnostic of the region South of the Orinoco River and to raise awareness about the tragedy that is occurring, as well as to outline urgent measures that need to be taken in order to halt this disaster.
