According to this Spanish-language article, “the Bolivian Documentation and Information Center (Cedib) warns “the advance of mining on Madidi is…linked to a process of dismantling national protection units, such as protected areas and indigenous territories.”
“We have been able to demonstrate, in several cases, that the implemented policies are aimed at weakening the protection character of our protected areas, in favor of extractivism, using, for this, the instruments and tools that should guarantee the fulfillment of the objectives. creation of these reserves ”, says the Cedib researcher, Jorge Campanini.
One of these instruments, according to Campanini, is the Management Plan, a tool that must manage compliance with the regulations and that the National Service for Protected Areas (Sernap) should fully defend and apply.”
““Unfortunately the opposite happens and it can be evidenced, in the case of Madidi, that there are applications for mining rights in areas where there should be no anthropic activities, the most affected area being the one that responds to the strict protection nature and where the requests and procedures of granting go through without any qualms.
Theoretically, the researcher says that the Madidi National Park and Natural Area of Integrated Management (PNANMI) has a new management plan, which was financed, executed and put into operation since 2014 and is unknown to civil society.
"It is urgent to know what have been the modifications of this new plan in relation to the one of 2006 and what have been the changes regarding the nature of protection and conservation", questioned Campanini.”
“It points out that the Madidi had an extensive area zoned as a strict protection or core zone and it was evident that the mining advance has not considered any protection parameter.
"It is worth mentioning that as Cedib we verified that the mining requests and requests, until 2018, not only affected the Tuichi, but several points within the area, including areas where extractive activities would be prohibited," he says.
This situation, according to the researcher, shows that there is no will of the authorities to protect biodiversity, even less, human rights.”
“100 percent of the Tuichi River that is located inside the Madidi National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area, and that is part of the Uchupiamona Community Land of Origin (TCO) has been squared by the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM) to gold mining, in one of the most biodiverse protected areas on the planet.
“Between May 13 and 14, the TCO representative had to be elected in assembly and that was when we found out that the entire Tuichi River is under concession, with mining rights. "One hundred percent is within the Madidi National Park, the most mega-diverse protected area in the world," says indigenous leader Ruth Alípaz to Brújula Digital.
Alípaz Cuqui, who vehemently defends his territory, affirms that the magistrate has alerted the assembly that two cooperatives dedicated to the exploitation of alluvial gold are about to enter Madidi, from Yucumo and Caranavi.”
The complaint joins the voices of the Madidi park rangers, who called the newsroom of this medium to alert about the presence of gold dredgers in the vicinity of the Protected Area.
"There is an attack with authorizations from the AJAM and the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap) for the mining companies to enter," says the indigenous woman, who sided with the defense of her territory.
At this stage, it indicates that the mining presence that was installed in the first instance in the main rivers of the Amazon such as the Kaka, Beni and others, today have branched out to rivers that are within Protected Areas and indigenous territories, without the permission of their habitants; that is, without complying with the prior, free and informed consultation.”
““They are branching from the rivers to the tributaries such as the Tuichi and the Quiquibey, it is a silent middle entrance, these organizations are the operators that act agilely and underhandedly, and there is no Government, there is no State present, and we know that this responds that the pandemic would be the perfect excuse to justify these activities in indigenous territories, in Protected Areas ”, he says.
The Amazonian river Tuichi has a length of 265 kilometers and is located within the Madidi; It is located north of the department of La Paz. It is born from the confluence of several tributaries at a height of 1,070 meters above sea level and follows a northwesterly course, then runs southeast until it empties into the Beni River.”