Ecuador’s Pending Tasks

César ZUMÁRRAGA

The fact that Ecuador is a country with high mining potential is no longer a hypothesis. It is a reality that has been consolidated in the last decade and promises to become the main source of wealth and development in the country.

However, for Ecuadorian society to take advantage of its mineral resources responsibly, protecting the environment and avoiding repeating the mistakes of the oil boom, there are still pending tasks that our country must comply with.

It is clear to all Ecuadorians – even those less informed - that there are two opposite worlds: responsible legal mining and illegal mining. Therefore, the first task that the country must fulfill is to fight firmly and decidedly against illegal mining.

This objective seems indisputable; however, there are still groups in society that promote illegal activities, sometimes disguised as artisanal operations or any other name, which also have clear connections to organized crime and drug trafficking-linked mafias.

Due to the aforementioned, no one is surprised that several leaders of the Conaie (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) are now announcing a new national strike, supposedly because the government has broken its “promise of a moratorium on permits for all legal mining projects in the country,” a promise never made, mentioned or discussed during the dialogue process, in which only the non-opening of the cadastre was an offer of the National Government as long as there are no regulations on prior, free and informed consultation - a commitment that the government has fulfilled. That´s how broad, that´s how blatant, that´s how crude the new strike is being proposed. The question we should all be asking ourselves is, “Who will finance this so-called “moratorium on all legal mining projects in the country”?

The ultimate goal of Conaie’s agenda are all the mineral deposits within the country, especially those that are most advanced, which are the ones that have resources and in which the State bases the expectations of the greatest economic income in the coming decades. For that reason, the president of the Conaie recently warned that “even if there are investments, they will not be able to mine in Ecuador.”

The fact that Conaie responds to hidden interests behind illegal mining is not surprising. However, the silence of anti-mining groups that attack projects that operate in accordance with the law, but limit themselves to being observers of what is happening in Yutzupino River in Napo, Chinapintza River in Zamora Chinchipe, or in Buenos Aires in Imbabura, places where there has been (and is daily occurring) very serious environmental damage, and quite possibly irreparable, in addition to countless criminal acts involving money laundering, human trafficking, child labor, etc.

Days before this article was published, the National Government formally announced coordinated actions between different government bodies to fights against illegal mining. The idea is putting illegal mining in the same category as drug mafias. The responsible mining industry has received this announcement with optimism. Civil society groups, citizens’ organizations, academia, political groups, and even environmental groups, must unite to reject illegal mining; after all, it is not just a Government problem, but is one that the entire country is facing. The other important task that Ecuador has to face is building consensus on key issues that affect everyone, and both drug trafficking and illegal mining seem to be indisputable matters of coincidence and national interest.

Another of Ecuador’s pending tasks is the reopening of the mining cadaster, which has been closed for more than five years, representing an unfulfilled promise of the government. I will not go into an in-depth analysis of why it was closed in the first place, but it is worth clarifying that granting new mining concessions will allow for greater investment in mineral exploration, an activity that generates minimal environmental impacts and that uses a tenth of the water compared to other industries. International statistics reveal that, out of every 1,000 projects, only 10 end up with a pre-feasibility study and only 1 becomes a mine; therefore, every day that the mining cadaster is closed, Ecuador is missing out on direct private investment that will help us determine our true mining potential.

Finally, the last pending task has to do with legal certainty in Ecuador. The country has been unable to enact several regulations that are essential for the mining industry to move forward. Despite Constitutional Court rulings ordering the enactment of a Law of Prior, Free and Informed Consultation, to date it has not been enacted. Once again, it is not only the Executive branch responsible for this duty, but fundamentally the National Assembly, which should, on its own, provide a bill that includes the international principles that are already enshrined in conventions and treaties on the matter and convert it into Law, not only for the benefit of an industry, but fundamentally to guarantee the collective rights of indigenous peoples and nationalities that are recognized in our Constitution and in the international treaties to which Ecuador is a party.

This list of tasks is not exhaustive, and I recognize the current Government’s efforts to put the house in order. A series of regulatory milestones that did not exist before have been added to the mining policy dictated by President Lasso and have eased the regulatory burden on investors, giving them sufficient time to carry out their exploratory activities with greater predictability. Regulations issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mines in December 2022 on the computation of concession periods and force majeure suspensions have alleviated many exploration projects affected by confusing and contradictory regulations. In this regard, one such critical tasks has been accomplished.

I hope that Ecuadorians can accomplish these pending tasks over the short term, resolving these issues that hinder development of the only industry that will allow Ecuador to emerge from its economic crisis to ensure a good future for its population, and preserve its environmental wealth, water and biodiversity.

Cosas 30

C Otidianas Que La Miner A

Hace Posible

Transporte Público

Melbourne tiene la mayor red de tranvías del mundo con 250 kilómetros de vías

Transporte público en Australia

Sydney encabeza la nación cuando se trata de usuarios del transporte público, con uno de cada cinco haciendo su desplazamientos diarios en trenes, autobuses y transbordadores. También tiene una de las redes más extensas del país, con más de 4000 buses, 2000 carruajes de tren, 30 transbordadores y un patrocinio combinado de más de 7 millones de personas (2016-17).