Good News Around The World: Colombia Bans All New Oil and Mining Projects in its Amazon - An Area the Size of Sweden...

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It’s 42% of Colombia’s territory. It’s 7% of the total Amazon Rainforest. It’s the same size as Sweden, and it’s now free from future oil and mineral extraction.

The news that half a million square kilometers of territory in the Amazon biome of Colombia was now limited only to renewable and regenerative economic activities only came out of Brazil, where the 30th annual meeting of the parties to the UN convention on climate change is taking place.



Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres made the announcement, and invited all South American countries to make similar commitments, and coordinate to protect the Amazon’s integrity when massive swaths of it are threatened by extractive activities.

“This declaration is an ethical and scientific commitment. It seeks to prevent forest degradation, river contamination and biodiversity loss that threatens the continent’s climate balance,” Vélez said.

“We do this not only as an act of environmental sovereignty, but as a fraternal call to the other countries that share the Amazon biome, because the Amazon does not know borders and its care requires us to move forward together.”

In Colombia, Vélez noted, some 43 oil blocks and 286 mining requests had currently not yet broken ground in various parts of the Amazon. The measure restricts the expansion of these and new extractive activities in Amazonas, Caquetá, Guaviare, Guainía, Putumayo and Vaupés, departments.

At the Meeting of Ministers, the Special Commission on Environment and Climate (Cemac) was launched, a regional cooperation platform to coordinate actions and mobilize resources in sustainable development, biodiversity, forests and water; confront deforestation and environmental crimes; and promote inclusion with effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities.

A statement from Vélez’s ministry detailed that Colombia expressed its full support for the roadmap proposed by the Special Commission on Environment and Climate and reaffirmed its commitment to its implementation.

The Colombian Amazon biome is home to 10% of the planet’s known plant species and supplies the Andean moors that guarantee water supply for millions of people.