In Februrary 2009, 12 indigenous and Afro-Descendent communities exercised their autonomy: they gave their public response to the Mandé Norte project under construction in their community. Their response was strong, and they unanimously rejected the project. Photo: KOLKO.

The Mandé Norte project is an emblematic case that, according the Colombian Constitutional Court, has violated the recognised rights of the communities of the region where the project is being carried out.[1] In 2005, the Government granted nine mining permits to the U.S. mining company Muriel Mining Corporation for a 30-year period for the exploitation of gold, copper and molybdenum. These permits cover 16,000 hectares located in the region of the lower and middle Atrato river in northwestern Colombia, specifically in the municipalities of Carmen del Darién (Chocó) and Murindó (Apartadó).[2]

The project affects various ancestral territories of afro-descendant and Embera indigenous communities, specifically the Embera reservation Urada Juguamiandó, which was the site of the exploratory phase in 2009 and is a point of major geological potential: the Careperro Mountain.[3] According to the organisations that have followed this case, this project presents multiple consequences that will affect the protection of the Embera and afro-descendant communities, and the exercise of their rights as tribal and indigenous communities.

The Careperro Mountain is one of the most sacred sites for the Embera culture.[4] In addition, the zone forms part of the Chocó bioregion that houses a large number of endemism—species not found anywhere else on the planet.[5] The Embera reservation of Urada-Jiguamiandó is located in the river basin of the Jiguamiandó River, the tributaries of which include 20 gulleys and streams that serve as direct water sources for the communities. The contamination of these water sources by mining activities would affect the production of subsistence crops (crops that serve part of a community’s daily food needs), farm animals, and the health of community members. This would lead to a loss of traditional economies – the basis of survival for indigenous and tribal communities – which are based on the detailed knowledge of their environment.[6]

The exploratory phase carried out in 2009 by Muriel Mining Corporation coincided with the militarisation of the zone,[7] which, according to the National Ombudsman Office, was already immersed in an armed conflict.[8] In January 2010, after a bombing by the army that left two indigenous people gravely injured,[9] the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted protective measures to 87 families in the face of the risk brought by the presence of armed actors in their territory, and recognised the reservation as a humanitarian area.[10]

In 2009, the indigenous communities affected by the Mandé Norte project complained that prior consultation, which is a State requirement, had not been completed.[11] As an indigenous community, the Embera are subject to the law of Agreement 169 of the International Labor Organisation (ILO), signed and ratified by the Colombian government via Law 21 of 1991. One of the most important stipulations of this agreement is prior consultation, which establishes the right of indigenous communities to self-determination in the face of outside economic projects on their territory. As a result, the Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of the exploratory phase until studies of the social, environmental and culture impacts are completed, and until prior consultation is carried out in an adequate manner, which should result in “the free, prior and informed consent” of the affected community.[12]

The British-Australian multinational company Rio Tinto[13] was subject to strong criticism in Great Britain from British NGOs and members of Parliament for participating in the Mandé Norte project (Rio Tinto paid 3.83 million dollars to Muriel Mining Corporation[14]). As a result, the company demonstrated to various British NG0s[15] in November 2010 that it had removed itself from the exploratory phase, leaving to Muriel Mining Corporation the responsibility of complying with the Court ruling.[16] One month later, Muriel Mining publicly announced its interest in continuing with the project.[17] Today, the national government has still not complied with the orders of the Constitutional Court, and in fact the Ministry of Justice and the Interior asked the Constitutional Court to nullify the Court’s ruling.[18] In November 2010 the Canadian company Sunward Resources announced that it would stay with Muriel Mining Corporation and would renegotiate use of the mines located in the Careperro Mountain with Rio Tinto.[19]

The UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, underscored the negative environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts of large-scale projects in indigenous territory.[20] He determined that “free, prior and informed consent is essential for the protections of the human rights of indigenous peoples in relation with large development projects.”[21] Similar to the international human rights framework, a part of the reservation declared itself a humanitarian and environmental area[22]: a territorial protection tool in the face of the impacts of the Mandé Norte project and also a tool to accompany the difficult path of the Embera people in its struggle for its rights.