PBI-Honduras attends PRO assembly as ASODEBICOQ defends environment from extractive projects in Santa Bárbara
PBI-Honduras has posted:
“We attended the Assembly of the Patronato Regional de Occidente (PRO) in Santa Barbara.
#ASODEBICOQ along with other civil society representatives expressed concern about the different #needs of its inhabitants and proposed projects to solve them.
We are concerned about the major problems associated with #deforestation, #water shortages and #persecution of leaders for denouncing irregularities.”
The PRO (Patronato Regional de Occidente or Western Regional Organization) represents about 200 communities in 15 municipalities in the departments of Copán and Santa Bárbara.
The Association for the Defence of Common Property in Quimistán (ASODEBICOQ) works to defend the rights to land, territory and the environment in the face of extractive projects in the department of Santa Bárbara.
Mining and hydroelectric projects
Those extractive projects including mining and hydroelectric dams.
The Center for Women’s Rights (CDM) has noted: “The department of Santa Bárbara is made up of 28 municipalities and is one of the main departments of interest for extractive projects.”
As of April 2023, the CDM says there are 75 extractive projects in Santa Barbara including 45 mining projects (extracción minera), 27 hydroelectric projects (hidroeléctricos), 2 thermal generation plants (generación térmica), and 1 solar panel project (fotovoltaica).
El Mochito mine and El Tornillito dam
Two of those extractive projects appear to be the El Mochito zinc-lead-silver mine and the El Tornillito hydroelectric dam.
Canada’s Goldcorp and the 2013 Mining Law
Criterio.hn has reported: “After passing the [mining] law in 1998, the Honduran government hemorrhagically granted mining concessions.”
That article also highlights: “Canada’s Goldcorp was one of the first companies to obtain a concession after the 1998 Mining Law was passed, exploiting the San Martin mine, located in the Siria Valley, in the department of Francisco Morazán, in open pit. Despite its closure in 2009, the San Martín mine remains one of the most controversial projects in Honduras, drying up 21 of the 24 rivers near its exploitation, where it used cyanide to separate gold from rocks. The San Martín mine showed the repercussions of the 1998 Law, which allowed companies unlimited use of water, exempting them from compliance with national environmental protection laws.”
The article further references the 2013 Mining Law.
It says: “The 2013 law, still in force, prohibits the granting of mining concessions in secret (requiring public notification), however, it qualifies certain project information as ‘confidential’. In theory, the law also bans mining in certain areas of the country. However, as discussed in the recent publication of this special, ‘mining exclusion’ areas are not respected in practice, harming the country’s watersheds and protected areas.”
From 2013 to 2021, 231 mining permits were approved.
In April 2014, MiningWatch Canada’s then Latin America program coordinator Jennifer Moore spoke to a Canadian parliamentary committee about the Honduran mining law that was passed in post-coup Honduras in January 2013.
Moore stated: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”
In May 2014, CEHPRODEC contributed to the report The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada’s Responsibility that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
That report noted: “The political and economic support Canada gives Canadian companies (through mechanisms such as Export Development Canada (EDC), the Investment Board of the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian International Development Agency) is provided without adequate controls to prevent the violation of human rights in the countries where the companies that receive these benefits operate.”
Accompaniment
PBI-Honduras has accompanied ASODEBICOQ since May 2018.
We continue to follow this situation.
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