Poised to accelerate an ongoing economic shift here toward minerals extraction, Colombia’s Congress is about to pass legislation that environmentalists say will open up huge tracts of wilderness to large-scale mining. At stake are not only páramos, the highland plains crucial for water supplies. Environmentalists contend vast wetlands are also likely to be degraded, which would do immeasurable harm to biodiversity and fishing resources, they say. “By promoting large-scale and open-pit mining, this law will help cause deforestation, pollution of rivers, and injury to páramos,” says Sandra Ramírez, a mining expert at Censat Agua Viva, the Colombian chapter of the international environmental group Friends of the Earth. Adds Ramírez: “Areas in [the Pacific department of] Chocó, in the [south-central Colombian department... [Log in to read more]