Over 90 NGOs denounce government mining plans

More than 90 NGOs at a  conference on Thursday attacked the government’s plan to promote open-pit metal mining and called for a moratorium on the activity.

The spokespersons  indicated that mining in Panama has always “failed.” They also considered it as an unstable and speculative business, which is highly polluting and has left irreversible environmental damage, destroying habitats, water, and soil in the national territory.

” The declaration of a mining moratorium is urgent, which stops the granting of any concession until there is a real national discussion on an alternative economic strategy for comprehensive, inclusive, supportive, and environmentally friendly development,” said the NGOs in a release.

The call comes after the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) incorporated more than 25,000 hectares located between the provinces of Coclé and Colón‘ into the mining regime last week

Among the organizations that signed the note are the Center for Environmental Advocacy, the Alliance for Conservation and Development, Highland Biotourism, the College of Biologists, the National Association for the Conservation of Nature, among others.

For Isaías Ramos, a biologist at the Center for Environmental Incidence, the so-called “dialogue” that the MICI has called on this issue is nothing more than a strategy to endorse the mining interests that have occurred throughout the governments and that now, with the excuse of the pandemic, it is intended to continue.

Susana Serracín, part of the Alliance for Conservation and Development, stressed that betting on Panama becoming a pro-mining development country, affecting the heart of our biodiversity, the quality of our waters, and the quality of human life “It means condemning us to a path of no return,” she said.

In the words of Serracín, if we allow this to be promoted, the result will be that there will be transnationals becoming more millionaires, authorities that lend themselves to support them driven by petty interests and a more impoverished nation.