\n<\/p>\n
G<\/span>olden grasses, mossy hummocks and scattered lakes unfurl across the highlands of Macizo del Cajas, Azuay province. The vastness of this high-altitude Ecuadorian moorland combines with its near-silence to create an empty, alien atmosphere.<\/p>\n But this unique landscape teems with life. The p\u00e1ramo \u2013 a high-altitude tropical ecosystem that stretches across the northern Andes \u2013 is a living sponge, quietly drawing moisture from the clouds that drift at more than 3,000 metres (9,800ft) above sea level.<\/p>\n Endangered mountain tapirs and endemic <\/strong>hummingbirds hide among the twisted, copper-barked Polylepis<\/em> trees.<\/p>\n Beneath the ground, ancient tectonic shifts and glaciers have cracked the bedrock, channelling water through veins that feed six large rivers, supplying mountain communities, cities and fragile ecosystems \u2013 including the Ecuadorian Amazon.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Cajas has protected status, but environmentalists argue that mining in surrounding areas will still have an impact on it.<\/span><\/p>\n That bedrock, however, also holds billions of dollars in gold, silver and copper. For more than three decades, these deposits have made the Cajas a battlefield between Ecuadorians who see large-scale mining as the answer to the country\u2019s economic woes and those who see it as an existential threat.<\/p>\n Unesco designated the Cajas a biosphere reserve in 2013, but the title offers scant protection. Mining companies now hold more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of concessions in the Cajas, with more than 15,000 of those hectares in the p\u00e1ramo.<\/p>\n Authorities say that the government has given the most important segments of ecosystems protected or national park status. But scientists argue that the zoning is arbitrary.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat areas are \u2018protected\u2019 is a political decision, not a technical one,\u201d says Juan Carlos S\u00e1nchez-Nivicela, a herpetologist and conservation biologist who has been studying Ecuador\u2019s high-altitude ecosystems for more than a decade. \u201cYou can\u2019t separate these areas. Any damage done to one directly affects the other.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Gentianella hirculus,<\/em> known as the Paramo tulip, is an endangered species that grows only in Ecuador\u2019s p\u00e1ramo ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n So far, large-scale mining activity in the p\u00e1ramos has been limited to exploration \u2013 in part, thanks to local resistance, inside and outside the courtroom. But now, new battle lines are being drawn in the Cajas.<\/p>\n On 23 June, the Canadian mining multinational Dundee Precious Metals was granted its environmental licence for exploitation of the Loma Larga project, which sits on the Quimsacocha p\u00e1ramo and surrounds the protected area.<\/p>\n \u201cThe company has satisfactorily fulfilled all requirements and prerequisites necessary \u2026 which is very difficult and time consuming in my country,\u201d says Patricio Vargas Coronel, president of Cuenca\u2019s Chamber of Mining.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can now sign the mining contract and begin construction, generating about 1,200 jobs and an investment of $450m (\u00a3337m).\u201d<\/p>\n Dundee\u2019s president and CEO, David Rae, touts the achievement as \u201can important milestone for Loma Larga \u2013 an attractive future growth opportunity for [Dundee] with significant potential to deliver strong returns for our investors and stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>The p\u00e1ramo acts like a living sponge, drawing moisture from the air. <\/span><\/p>\n Activists and ecologists, however, allege that the mine could cause enormous environmental damage, that the government has failed to properly consult local communities, and that they are subject to intimidation and surveillance for protesting against the mine. Dundee rejects the claims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are being followed,\u201d says Esther Remache, an anti-mining activist, pointing out the white pickup truck trailing behind.<\/p>\n <\/span>Federico Guzman, Cuenca councillor and anti-mining activist, in Quimsacocha.<\/span> Photograph: Anastasia G Austin and Douwe Den Held\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cOh, they\u2019re just looking after us,\u201d replies Federico Guzm\u00e1n, councillor for Cuenca and another longtime activist, with a wink.<\/p>\n The road to Loma Larga is public, and cuts through the Quimsacocha recreation area. Yet, it\u2019s lined with private security personnel who peer out from booths guarding the offices and buildings of Dundee Precious Metals.<\/p>\n As Guzman parks his vehicle, the pickup behind also stops and a guard exits, using his phone to film the group of activists, almost all of whom are over 60.<\/p>\n \u201cThey always follow us when we go up here,\u201d says Remache, who believes this is an intimidation technique. \u201cThey\u2019ll openly photograph us \u2026 you have to wonder, what are those photos for?\u201d<\/p>\n In a letter to the Guardian, Dundee representatives denied these allegations, noting that all Loma Larga security personnel \u201chave undergone human rights training and behave with full respect\u201d. They said that the project\u2019s fence had been frequently vandalised, and guards took action to prevent trespassing, but that Dundee \u201cregularly welcomes visitors to the project area\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>Esther Remache holds discarded fence material outside a mining concession in Quimsacocha.<\/span><\/p>\n Quimsacocha, a p\u00e1ramo at an altitude between 3,600m and 3,900m, is a vital water source and biodiversity refuge. It\u2019s here that S\u00e1nchez-Nivicela says he rediscovered a tiny frog thought to be extinct.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something like 20-plus amphibian species in the Cajas: 80 to 90% of these are endemic \u2013 but we keep finding more each year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Scientists warn that mining in Cajas could irreversibly destroy fragile ecosystems and poison the water supply that hundreds of thousands of people depend on.<\/p>\n \u201cProtection is not just a matter of the environment,\u201d says Sandra Barros, a municipal hydrology engineer who evaluated the risks of the Loma Larga project. \u201cIt is a matter of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Quimsacocha is an important water source and biodiversity refuge.<\/span><\/p>\n Several past referendums held in affected communities had rejected mining in local watersheds. In 2023, a provincial court upheld the decision to suspend the Loma Larga project, but also opened the door for Dundee to revive its project if new environmental studies and local consultations showed support.<\/p>\n In April, Daniel Noboa, the country\u2019s recently re-elected president, extended the Loma Larga concession for another 25 years. In 2024, he attended the world\u2019s largest mining conference in Canada to reassure investors that a new era of Ecuadorian mining was dawning.<\/p>\n Current gold prices value Loma Larga\u2019s estimated deposits at more than $6bn. Ecuador\u2019s government also stands to make hundreds of millions from the project.<\/p>\n On 23 June, the country\u2019s environmental ministry quietly approved the project\u2019s environmental licence \u2013 the final hurdle for Dundee to begin exploitation.<\/p>\n <\/span>The site of Dundee Precious Metals camp in Quimsacocha, where the company is currently in the exploration phase.<\/span><\/p>\n Dundee\u2019s environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Loma Larga claimed mining posed only a \u201cmild risk\u201d to the ecosystem. However, a study by the <\/strong>municipal water and sanitation company (ETAPA) claimed there were dozens of errors and omissions in that assessment. It concluded mining risked serious, potentially irreversible damage to nature, water resources, and public health in the Quimsacocha region. Other studies corroborate the ETAPA\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think contamination would stop at some arbitrary red line just because [the mining company] says that\u2019s where their impact stops? Of course not. Any contamination will end up in the rivers downstream,\u201d says Barros, the ETAPA study\u2019s main author.<\/p>\n Dundee, however, called the ETAPAreport \u201cmisinformation\u201d and says that it is \u201cdesigning and advancing Loma Larga in line with the highest standards for environmental and water management\u201d, pointing to the positive results of its EIA, the evaluation and approval of which \u201cis the sole responsibility of the ministry for the environment, not ETAPA\u201d.<\/p>\n The environment ministry did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s requests for comment, <\/strong>and on July 24, Noboa eliminated the environment ministry entirely, transferring its responsibilities to fall under the ministry for mining.<\/p>\n Ecuador\u2019s constitution requires the government to consult local and Indigenous communities before allowing any mining project to begin.<\/p>\n Under Noboa, however, allegations of irregularities in this process have become so widespread that UN human rights officials issued a formal warning last year, saying Indigenous groups and local communities were being excluded from consultations, not offered complete information, and arrested for protest or criticism of projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned that the failure to convene all potentially affected people, together with the lack of full and impartial information regarding the potential negative consequences of these projects have exacerbated social conflict,\u201d the UN experts say.<\/p>\n In other parts of Ecuador, the government has responded to protests with force. When communities protested against Canadian mining in Ecuador\u2019s north-western cloud forest last year, Noboa sent in the military. Security forces injured at least 36 people, and more than 100 were charged with terrorism or organised crime offences.<\/p>\n In May, the ministry of energy and mines (MEM) said authorities had finished consulting local communities on Loma Larga, and reported that they had agreed to let the project proceed to exploitation. Communities had \u201caccess to ample, timely and adequate information\u201d on the vote, MEM said.<\/p>\n But community members and activists had a starkly different view of the consultation: of eight interviewed, not one said they knew that it had taken place.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Dundee mine site is fenced off and guarded by private security officers.<\/span><\/p>\n They recalled a day in January, when the environment ministry sent 200 police and troops to \u201coversee\u201d a vote on the mine outside town. Instead, one said, authorities were forced to cancel the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople saw the soldiers, the militarised area, the tents and they showed up to protest,\u201d says Nataly Torres, a sociologist and member of the community.<\/p>\n In its report, MEM characterises the protest as \u201cviolent incidents \u2026 restricting the right of other members of the community to be consulted\u201d. Dundee says it cooperated with all of Ecuador\u2019s \u201cstrict and well-defined regulations\u201d. In a statement, the ministry said that communities had been consulted in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n The fear of state violence now hangs over environmental defenders in the Cajas region as well, activists say.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, they have bigger, deadlier arms, and they use them to intimidate us,\u201d Remache says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Esther Remache looks out towards a mining concession in Quimsacocha.<\/span><\/p>\n And the stakes are high for biodiversity, water and communities. \u201cAny disturbance, any change in land use, any extractive activity [in the Cajas] will directly affect species that have nowhere else to go,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says. \u201dWe\u2019ll lose not only unique species but also the water supplying entire communities,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n And the outcome here may set a precedent for the rest of Ecuador.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the mother of all battles,\u201d says Carlos Castro, a legal professor and opponent of mining in the region. \u201cIf we lose here, the rest will fall like dominoes.\u201d<\/p>\n Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Golden grasses, mossy hummocks and scattered lakes unfurl across the highlands of Macizo del Cajas, Azuay province. The vastness of this high-altitude Ecuadorian moorland combines with its near-silence to create an empty, alien atmosphere. But this unique landscape teems with life. The p\u00e1ramo \u2013 a high-altitude tropical ecosystem that stretches across the northern Andes \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[7619,7618,7617,918,4891,1123,129,7616,517,7615],"class_list":{"0":"post-13956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-battlefield","9":"tag-bedrock","10":"tag-billiondollar","11":"tag-development","12":"tag-ecuador","13":"tag-global","14":"tag-gold","15":"tag-hummingbirds","16":"tag-reserve","17":"tag-tapirs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Breaking ground<\/h2>\n
Fragile ecosystems<\/h2>\n
A new era of Ecuadorian mining<\/h2>\n
Mother of all battles<\/h2>\n