Impactos de la minería de oro a cielo abierto sobre la estructura, función y el desempeño económico de los sistemas de producción agropecuarios tradicionales de la cuenca del Río Tamaná (Chocó)

Abstract

Small-scale gold mining is a source of subsistence in many countries (Santos, García, Alonso, & Adams, 2011), as well as a determining factor of the environment (Rocha, Olivero, & Caballero, 2018). The way in which metals are extracted during the application of the mining activity could generate impacts that would end up bringing with them a series of environmental, social and economic imbalances, specifically in the areas near the Tamaná river basin where they are cultivated and / or used. The agricultural systems from which the inhabitants extract their food are established. One of the procedures used to evaluate the impacts that open-pit gold mining can generate on the agricultural systems settled in the Tamaná river is to characterize the mining, determine the importance that agricultural systems represent for their owners by calculating the Importance Coefficient of Species and determine the agro-productive, social and economic effects that mining can generate. This research was developed in the municipality of Nóvita, Chocó, taking into account the agricultural systems settled on the banks of the Tamaná River located in an area no larger than one kilometer, based on the fact that in this area the agricultural and mining systems are the main source of the local economy. The Tamaná river basin has an area of 1,327 km2 and crosses the municipality from East to West (Ministry of Health, 2018). The municipality of Novita is a municipality whose location and wealth in metals has been cataloged, at the departmental level, as one of the most economically interesting for mining exploitation. The problem to be addressed in this research is directly related to the way in which mining activity affects agricultural production systems from the social, economic and ecological spheres to the possible environmental effects that can be generated during mining extraction and after is. Consequently, the objective of this research was to determine the impact of open-pit gold mining on traditional agricultural production systems in the Tamaná river basin, Chocó, based on the need to know the perception of producers about the changes that have been taking place in each of the studied contexts (social, economic, ecological-environmental and directly on the water source) and determine what actions are being carried out to stop or face said affectation. Subsequently, generate key information for future watershed management plans and for the recognition of the importance of agricultural systems as a fundamental basis of the economy, for the sustainability of the ecology and for the conservation of culture and local productive systems.