Write a letter. Mail two copies. It's easy. You'll feel good.
The indigenous folks of Venezuela will thank you.
GRAction Global Response May 18
# 4/94 Environmental Action Network 1994
~Subject: Rainforest/water resource destruction
Venezuela
"...the tropical rainforest, *The Abismo*, is in grave danger.
And if the rainforest is in danger, the existence of all things
is also in danger. We want our words to move those responsible
to enforce th laws and to do something concrete and effective."
-- Letter signed by the chief of the Pem\'on Indian tribe,
and 250 members of southern Venezuelan Indian communities.
Global Response members are asked to write letters in support of
Amazonian Indians and Venezuelan environmentalists who are asking the
Venezuelan government to regulate and monitor gold-mining in
Venezuela's rainforests. (In the following text, the symbol \'
indicates that the following letter has an acute accent over it.
For example, Bol\'ivar has an accent over the i.)
Numerous mining concessions have been granted in Venezuela's
mineral-rich state of Bol\'ivar. Multinational corporations from South
Africa, England, and the US, Japan, and Canada have invested in this
large, remote area. The dense rainforests bordering Brazil and Guyana
serve as the headwaters of the Caron\'i, Caura, and Paragua Rivers.
By law, the headwaters of the Caron\'i and the Parque Nacional Canaima
are protected from mining. The decrees protecting these areas are now
being violated. Mining leases have also been granted to foreign
multinationals on land that had previously been given to indigenous
people for hunting, fishing, and subsistence agriculture.
Foreign mining concessions are often purchased from Venezuelan
citizens who have obtained mining leases from the Corporaci\'on
Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), the government agency that controls
industry in Bol\'ivar. Extending over thousands of square miles of
primary low-land rainforest,these mining concessions pose a threat to
some of the most diverse and species-rich ecosystems in the world.
Large-scale mining operations have already begun at the headwaters of
the Caron\'i and Paragua, two of the largest black-water rivers in
South America. Black-water rivers get their name from the high level
of tannin in the water, caused by decomposing leaves and other
vegetable matter from the lush surrounding forests.
The Pem\'on Indians, who have lived in the area for thousands of
years, and Venezuelan environmentalists are concerned that gold-mining
in Bol\'ivar will be allowed to continue without effective government
supervision. These groups want to ensure that gold mining will only
occur if the government can both *commit* to a long-range environmental
and economic plan for the region and *guarantee* effective law
enforcement to ensure that companies comply to mining regulations.
The Pem\'on and environmentalists are concerned that, without the
aggressive enforcement of laws to protect indigenous people and the
environment, an ecological disaster will forever alter the ecology of
The Abismo and the headwaters of the Caron\'i, with far-reaching
implications for the state of Bol\'ivar and all of Venezuela.
PLEASE WRITE
Dr. Andr\'es Caldera
Ministro de la Secretar\'ia de la Presidencia
Palacio de Miraflores
Caracas
VENEZUELA
(FAX 58-2-8610793)
(Dear Minister Caldera)
Gobernador Andr\'es Velazquez
Palacio de la Gobernaci\'on
Ciudad Bol\'ivar
Estado Bol\'ivar
VENEZUELA
(FAX 58-85-20245)
(Dear Governor Velazquez)
Commend the government of Venezuela for its laws prohibiting mining in
forest reserves and in the Protective Zone of the Caron\'i River and
ask the government to enforce these laws;
- Ask that the government honor its commitment to protect the land
rights of the Pem\'on Indians;
- Urge the government to conduct frequent audits and inspections of the
mining companies and their mining operations;
- Point out the dangers that mining the headwaters of the Caron`i will
have on the rainforests, the indigenous people, and the Guri Dam; and
- Stress that the proposal to divert the waters of the Caura River will
cause severe ecological damage to the Yekuana Indians, the lower
Caura's fishing economies, and the rainforest.
+--- Background: ---
| o Mercury and cyanide used to extract gold pose a serious threat
| to down-river water supplies.
| o The combination of thin rainforest topsoil, heavy rainfall, and
| mining related deforestation makes the land exposed to industrial
| mining operations highly susceptible to erosion. Mining at the
| Caron\'i's headwaters has already reduced the rainforest's
| ability to control water flow. In addition to the diminished
| water supply flowing down the Caron\'i, siltation from erosion
| and from dredge-mining in the Caron\'i threatens to reduce the
| Guri Dam's effectiveness. The Guri Dam provides more than 60% of
| Venezuela's electricity.
| o The CVG has proposed building three dams on the Caura River to
| divert water from the Caura to the Paragua and then to the
| Caron\'i. This plan would flood Yekuana Indian homelands, and
| deforest thousands of acres of rainforest. Fishing and
| ecotourism industries in the lower Caura will be severely
| affected by the disruption of the natural water supplies.
+-------------------
A one-page airmail letter from the US to Venezuela costs 50 cents.
For a frame of reference regarding the potential impact of unregulated
gold mining, five years (1986-1991) of cyanide-leach gold mining in
Summitville, Colorado USA resulted in an environmental disaster that
decimated trout populations along 17 miles of Rio Grande tributaries
and contaminated irrigation water in the San Luis Valley. The
estimated cost to clean up the site is $100 million.
The information in this Global Response Action was provided by:
Sociedad Conservacionista Audubon de Venzuela
Aptdo
80450 Caracas 1080-A
Venezuela,
on behalf of more than a dozen Venezuelan indigenous and environmental
groups who requested this action.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Transcribed for Usenet etc. by Cameron Spitzer in San Jose
for Global Response, POB 7490, Boulder CO 80306 USA (303)444-0306