The municipality of veins (Santander) will not disappear from the map of Colombia after the agreement with the Ministry of Environment in the delimitation of the paramo of Santurban. After the agreement, the more than 2,464 inhabitants of this capital will be able to continue carrying out their ancestral tasks as long as conserve water and the ecosystem of the area.
(See: Duque commits to protect 30% of the Colombian marine area).
“We vetans are happy to be able to advance in such a tedious process as it was to define the technical and scientific aspect to be able to mold that line of the Páramo that defines the future of our territory.”, assured Hernán Bautista, mayor of Vetas.
The community of Vetas celebrates that the Ministry of the Environment has committed to correcting the cartographic errors that it had initially proposed and where they monopolized more area and the entire community was affected. That is why today, through different technical, economic, environmental, social and cultural proposals, they managed to demonstrate that the areas that were classified in the category of restoration areas within the government proposal, can be incorporated into the paramo area to preservation purposes in which trees can be planted to preserve ecosystems.
“Having this agreement gives us peace of mind both in Vetas and in the municipalities that come, telling everyone that it is possible with a friendly dialogue and union to advance in the agreements,” said Wilson Ramírez, advisor to the Ministry of the Environment.
For the municipality of Vetas, the total paramo area is 6,441 hectares, a value higher than the 6,437 hectares established by the Government Resolution. That is delimitation proposal by the inhabitants meets the requirements established in the sentence, emphasizing that the new delimitation in the municipality of Vetas will not be inferior in terms of environmental protection than the one established in the Resolution of the reference.
(See: 2022 begins with an emergency call for climate change).
“Above all, we will continue to defend the ecosystem in which we have lived for centuries and have loved. We are committed to doing sustainable mining and taking care of our water sources”, expressed Ivonne González, president of Asomineros.
the deal recognize not only the environmental Conservation, but also of the traditional mining that for years has been the largest source of production and subsistence of all the inhabitants of the municipality.
(See: Ecopetrol commits to protect 30,000 hectares of forest).
The Vetas community presented other strategies to end the conflict and proposed the creation of a Municipal Council and Regional del Páramo as instances of permanent coordination between the authorities and the communities. The dialogues will continue. However, the conversation will focus on the control mechanisms to have all the agreements reached in a commitment document.
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