{Pionera. La resistencia a la minería a cielo abierto protagonizada por los vecinos de Esquel marcó un camino para nuevas comunidades.|Trailblazers.  The resistance to the open-pit mining industry by residents of Esquel paved the way for other communities. }{De esas experiencias y luchas nace el Foro Ambiental y Social.|The Social and Environmental Forum was born out of these struggles and experiences.  }{Hace pocos días nos enteramos de que Chubut es la provincia argentina con mayor porcentaje de tierras en manos extranjeras.|A few days ago, we were informed that Chubut is the Argentinian province with the greatest percentage of land in foreign hands. }{Hace años que sabemos que el gobierno de Das Neves -que extendió la concesión para la explotación de áreas petroleras en favor de empresa multinacionales, hasta 2047-, pretende dar vía libre a empresas mineras internacionales para que desarrollen su fabuloso negocio en la meseta chubutense.|We have known for years that the government of Das Neves – who extended concessions for the exploitation of petroleum to multinational companies, until 2047-, intends to give a free pass to international mining companies so that they develop their fabulous business in the plateau of Chubut. }{Para conocer un poco más sobre la lucha del pueblo chubutense para evitar la contaminación y la entrega de su territorio, entrevistamos a Pablo Palicio, referente del Foro Ambiental y Social de la Patagonia.|For more information about the fight of the People of Chubut against contamination and hand-over of their territory, we interview to Pablo Palicio, referring of the Social and Environmental Forum of the Patagonia.

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How and when did the Social and Environmental Forum of Patagonia come to exist?

{El Foro surge como correlato de las luchas que se venían gestando contra la minería a cielo abierto en nuestra provincia y el país, después de lo de Esquel particularmente se empezó a tomar conciencia de una situación que afectaba a todo el territorio y que era la invasión de estos proyectos mineros con efectos devastadores para el ambiente y las poblaciones.|The Forum arose as a result of the fights against the open-pit mining industry that were brewing up in our province and the country, particularly after Esquel began to be aware of the situation affecting the territory; the invasion of those mining projects with devastating effects for the environment and the populations. }{Es así como uno de nuestros compañeros estuvo presente en un encuentro en Comodoro, que tenía este formato de Foro, donde participaron especialistas y gente de comunidades afectadas por la gran minería con el fin de concientizar sobre la problemática.|That’s how one of our companions attended an encounter in Commodore, which had the format of a Forum, in which specialists and people of communities affected by the great mining industry participated in order to learn more about these problems. }{De esta manera decidió –el compañero- emular ese encuentro en la sede local de la Universidad convocando a especialistas y profesionales de distintas puntos del país, como así también a varios asambleístas, de las decenas de asambleas en lucha repartidas por toda la cordillera, y por supuesto la asamblea de vecinos de Esquel.|Afterwards, our friend, decided to reproduce that encounter in the Student Center of the University by inviting specialists and professionals from all different parts of the country, as well as many members from the dozens of Neighborhood Associations protesting throughout the Cordillera mountain range, and of course the Neighborhood Association of Esquel. }{Esto ocurre aproximadamente en septiembre de 2008 con una repercusión muy positiva dando nacimiento al foro de Trelew que empieza a articular con el Foro de Comodoro Rivadavia.|This all happened around September of 2008, with very positive ramifications.

The Forum of Trelew emerged and began to collaborate with the Forum of Commodore Rivadavia. }{A partir de allí nace la otra sede que es la de Puerto Madryn.|Soon after that, it is born another in Puerto Madryn.  Today we are three offices working together in solidarity, learning setting up activities and sharing ideas and knowledge with the population.

How do you organize yourselves  and set up activities, taking into account that you are a provincial organization?

The Internet has become an essential tool for many environmental organizations and we can’t get away from it. The Internet keeps us connected through information and the activities.  Anyway, we still give the utmost importance to face to face encounters and we have many opportunities to get together. In Trelew, we conduct weekly meetings and the same is happening in the other offices. We either travel or our friends do and we get together to see how we are doing in our struggles. Even if each local Forum has autonomy in their decisions, we all are aware of what each other is doing and when we have activities that require the presence or the help of everyone, we all come together.  Also, we each have invested a lot of personal time and effort into a solidary just cause, one in which we all believe in and that brings us closer together as we work towards the common good without wanting anything in return.  Also we keep the lines of communication open with other organizations and associations throughout the country, such as Union of the Citizens Assembly  (UAC)  and environmental organizations, media,  communication agencies and general public interested in our cause.

What is different with the Social and Environmental Forum from other environmental organizations?

The legacy of social ecology taught us that both things – Social and the Environment- are closely intertwined; it is quite difficult to find environmental cause that have not a root in social causes, and the inverse is also true.  It is the current standard of our society, a society of production and consumption in search of unlimited growth and expansion in a finite planet that has led us to the disaster in which we find ourselves. In this context, we take part in all the social causes within our means and available time.

Human Rights, injustice, inequality, and social repression, vindications of gender, ethnicity or individual freedoms are all of our concern. We know it’s a wide range and like the proverb says: You shouldn’t bite more than you can chew; for that reason we focus on the red-hot topic of the polluting mining industry but with hopes in combating all the social inequalities we can.

For those readers that don’t know much about the effects of open-pit mining, what are the main dangers to the environment and people?

To be succinct, we are facing the combination of mining and chemistry.  It’s a type of mining that appeared with the shortage of minerals. Nowadays, the concentration of minerals on the ground is so low that it requires a large quantity of chemicals and water to be able to extract minerals.

Moreover, enormous amount of blasting and demolition of territory are required because minerals are no longer concentrated in veins as in the past, but it is dispersed over miles and miles of territory.

This situation collides with the population and their way of life and generates a displacement of the population throughout the territories. We can resume in three essential aspects the consequences of open pit mining: Contamination, destruction and looting.

Contamination – the method itself, as I was saying before, uses grand scale blasting, massive quantities of energy to transform huge rocks into powder and wash it with million litres of water every day and tons of chemicals (cyanide, sulphuric acid and many others). That’s how they manage to catch minerals, and leave behind millions and millions of contaminated water dragging a toxic cocktail of heavy metals into the water and mining basins.

Destruction – they destroy the territory, razing and erasing entire mountains, leaving us behind with a barren landscape looking like the moon and can never be cured.  It’s impossible to reverse the devastation of the landscape because it was such a radical change in terms of fauna and ecosystems.

Looting - because among the many “gifts” left us by the unmentionable president, he who delivered us with both our hands and feet tied up, he gave the mining multinational companies a “beautiful” legislation for which they pay nearly nothing.  It’s ridiculous to charge a levy per mine entrance, the early repayment of investments, to refund of export tax through Patagonian ports, benefit from tax-free fuel, pay no bank fees nor gross income tax and so on; and  they’ve had have the same tax benefits and rights for 30 years. That is to say, if a future government wishes to change the tax laws, the multinational mining companies can go to International Court.

Besides, this legislation is backed by The Bi-Lateral Treaty of Mining Integration and Complementation, a treaty between Chile and Argentina.  Many people don’t believe it exists and many more don’t even know it exists, the bilateral treaty created a third country in the Andean Cordillera that is not Argentinean nor Chilean but that belongs to several multinational mining corporations.

There’s a deplorable case that came out in the news just a few days ago, and this is just one sample case:  Barrick Gold, the mining company owned by Peter Munk and the Bush family; they appropriated a significant portion of territory inside a Biosphere Reserve set up by UNESCO, and now they don’t anyone near it. Now it’s Barrick Gold’s land and they even planted the Canadian flag and it waves high and proud.

Today, how far along is your fight against the mega-mining companies?

At the moment, several governments are in collusion with mining companies to reverse the achievements obtained by the Citizens groups after Esquel, where the following 7 provinces banned open pit mining and the use of toxic chemicals in the mines (Chubut 2003, Río Negro 2004, Tucumán 2006, Mendoza 2007, La Pampa 2007, Córdoba and San Luis 2008).

The Province of Cordoba has one of the best written laws, and the population has mobilized in great numbers and maintains the Citizen Group to protect the laws against attacks of unconstitutionality.

In Mendoza, thousands mobilized as well, against the Project San Jorge for copper and gold. Because of the ban against the use of toxic chemicals, the mines claimed they would not use cyanide, sulphuric acid or mercury and they claimed they had “A unique method”. The same version of this “unique method” was used in Esquel and in some many more places.

In our case, we know that the Project Navidad by  Pan America Silver is all set to start as announced  to their shareholders, and they have to do is reverse Law 5001. On the other hand, we’ve had some great successes such as the Law of the Glaciers that was promoted throughout and defended by all social organizations in the country.

We can ask one of our colleagues more capable of defending the act before approval   and help defend the law of the Glaciers.  It’s now that we have to fight, and fight a lot for its implementation. This being the case, this will be a large stumbling block for the mining companies that want to get rid of and melt the glaciers, our source of fresh water.

Everything indicates that the next Governor of Chubut  will either be  Eliceche  from the FPV or Das Neves.

Do you think that the environmental policies of the provincial government will radically change if one or the other wins?

The truth is that we very sceptical that will ever happen. Looking at the statements of either one of them, what we see is a very clear policy of going ahead with many destructive projects.

The federal government is a promoter of open pit mining and at the provincial level they are not too far off either, most likely they do not want to pay the heavy political price of not going along.  But froml the information that came out of the meetings between the governments and the mining companies, it is very clear they are eager to resume the contaminating open pit mining.

That’s why we are dedicated to double our efforts in defending the legislation prohibiting large scale mining and the use of cyanide. We’ve received information that the government wants to modify Law 5001 after the elections.  We need the support from all the different sectors of the population to defend the attacks of the multinationals against the legislation.

We are conducting a signature petition to prevent the abolition of Law 5001, as well demonstrations and other activities. For example, this weekend we’re parading up to the plateau of Chubut for the second time, to accompany a trip of the People of the Plateau expelled by the Pan American Silver and to defend our water rights at the gates of the Project Navidad near Gastre.

Afterwards, on Friday the 11^th we are assembling at the University with specialists and members of parliament to re-issue the minutes of the meeting in 2008 that I alluded to earlier in the program. We hope to bring a lot of people closer together.

The municipal authorities of the Chubut Plateau, in a declaration over the radio, openly expressed the support of the population for the mining installations in the interior of the Province. What do you attribute the support of the population they represent?

First of all, I have serious doubts that the population shares those views. Rather, I believe that in some cases, they are talking about places with a small population where the local authorities exert a huge pressure in places where they know each other and the population is easily frightened.

In Gan Gan, in the interior provinces, a group of citizens mobilized and formed a march against those types of mining installations promoted   as their only alternative for a good life. It so happens that the mining companies, especially Pan American Silver, have learned very well from their mistakes in the past and for the last few years they distribute  subsidies and gifts, they get involved with the population, they visit their homes and they are very meticulous in their job. They’ve set up, right in the middle of the Plateau, a Public Relations office and they have people especially trained in PR. Some municipal authorities, unfortunately,  act more as the spokesperson and employees of the mining company rather than representatives of the people who elected them.  But we are confident in the wisdom of the people of the villages and we do not try to persuade them, we only try to show them the other side of the coin, which is just a democratic practice that should have been followed by those in government and not just show or represent what the mining companies desire.