Impacto ambiental de la mineria de oro en el departamento del Choco

Abstract

This article contains a review about the impacts caused by gold mining. This activity generate a big habitat destruction that involves to the interruption of ecosystems affecting the connection between the elements that make up the surrounding natural ecosystems. This document has the purpose of documenting the mining context and the damages caused in the Chocó Department. This manuscript shows how dangerous chemicals such as cyanide and mercury in the extraction of this mineral are used. It use caused numerous impacts in natural space which affect the environment and human health. In Colombia, the first’s gold main are produce in Antioquia (49%), Chocó (20%) and Nariño (9%). Illegal mining is one of the most informal activities in the country, due to that taxes are not paid to the state, it does not have elements of labor protection and safety, it generates loss of human lives. This analysis is the result of the compilation and documentation of actors who has studied this activity; appreciations that show how the mining that is practiced in the opencast and underground gold impacts on biodiversity and social groups that are the main actors of this problem. Currently, if viewed from the social point of view, mining in the Chocó has caused more harm than benefits to the communities. Much of this activity is informal and illegal with some cases in the process of formalization. Despite this dynamic, Chocó is full of strong and solid organizational processes of black and indigenous communities that, among other things, have been fighting for decades for the country to recognize in its Constitution, its interethnic and plurinational nature for the management of areas in which they have lived ancestrally.