Students & Parents Protest Excessive Osa Peninsula River-Mining
realcosta.com - Gene Warneke - May 14, 2010
“No las conseciones de nuestros rios!” (No concessions on our rivers!)
On Thursday in Puerto Jiménez on the Osa Peninsula, a contingent of students and parents marched in protest against the mining of their rivers for gravel and sand in a parade sponsored by the Nacional University, SINAC (the National System of Conservation Areas, that is the Costa Rican National Parks administratr, UNED (La Universidad Estatal a Distancia) and MEP (Ministerio de Educación Pública).
14 river mining concessions that would mine about 26 kilometers of 6 rivers have been approved, or are in the process of being approved by National Environmental Office (SETENA) and the Department of Geology & Mines. On some of the rivers, only a few kilometers would not be mined.
The livelihood of most Osa families depends on tourism, farming and fishing. The residents who are aware of the pending environmental disaster fear the worst and are for the first time actively protesting.
In many countries, river mining is banned because of its devasting long term environmental destruction. Gold mining in California in the 1850's destroyed many of its rives and the effects can still be seen.
If so many of the concessions are allowed, the destruction of the 6 affected Osa Peninsula rivers will be near total. The peninsula's biodiversity and fish and other marine organisms in the Golfo Dulce will be negatively impacted for generations.
Applications to SETENA for a river mining concession must include an environmental impact study. In its impact review process, SETENA does not check to see if there are other concessions on the river in question. In other words, this review process does not consider the overall environmental impact of multiple adjoining mining concessions.
Also, an official within the Department of Geology & Mining, the department with oversight responsible of approved concessions, admitted that the department does not have sufficient personnal to inspect the concessions that are granted. Owners of a current concession on the Rio Tigre have publicly admitted to taking nearly three times their alloted amount without inspection.
The same gravel and sand that the rivers have exposed lies only two to three meters below the surface of the peninsula's long northeastern alluvial plain. Geologists have suggested a viable option to river mining would be for the government to allow limited small-scale open-pit mining for the local communities to access to build schools, public works, private homes and maintain public roads.
Although countless studies of rivers in other countries have shown that river mining is extremely destructive to watershed biodiversities, the rivers of the Osa Peninsula and Costa Rica in general, have not been sufficiently studied by Costa Rican scientists to allow the government to formulate and pass conservation measures.