The constitutional court in Colombia has revoked all mining licenses in the country's páramo regions — the moorland areas of the Andes Mountains that are above the tree line but below the permanent snow line. This ruling overrides part of the government's National Development Plan, which in 2014 had banned the creation of new mining licenses but permitted the existing 347 contracts to remain, according to Colombia Reports.
With this ruling, the court ordered a complete and immediate termination of mining activity in the region, nullifying Article 173 of the National Development Plan that had protected the previously contracted mining operations. Article 173 had been challenged by environmental activists and the left-leaning opposition party Polo Democrático, explains TeleSUR.
"First life, and then business," Polo Democrático member Alirio Uribe Muñoz said on Twitter after the ruling was announced on Monday. The court stated that mining for gold and oil in the delicate mountain ecosystems could cause irrevocable damage.
In addition to striking a blow at international mining operations in the country, the court ruling is a win for the country's biodiversity and is ultimately beneficial for Colombia's major cities, which rely on the páramos as a water supply, according to Latin Correspondent. These ecosystems gather water from rain and mists and create a filtration system into rivers and streams, storing water during the rainy season and releasing it during the dry season for around 70 percent of Colombia's population, as The City Paper explains.
The court also revoked an article that barred displaced victims of Colombia's half-century armed conflict from claiming land that had been seized by the government for projects of supposed "strategic national interest," explains Colombia Reports. The court says that this is practice goes against the constitutional rights of the dispossessed victims.
The Colombian páramos are mainly found between an altitude of 9,850ft and 16,500ft, according to the BBC.
