Another dispatch from Canadian journalist Dawn Paley about Goldcorp in Guatemala:

Goldcorp: Occupation and Resistance in Guatemala

From Dawn Paley’s weblog for the Dominion Paper.

Lucy Ruiz, the current Sub-secretary of the Ministry of Mines, confirms that the Golden I and Golden II concessions in the Intag valley have been legally revoked by the Ecuadorian government.

A preview screening of the near-completed Bajo Suelos Ricos - Under Rich Earth was held in Ecuador’s capital on May 28th. The event was organized by the Cine Club Nawi and the Department of Local Development at FLACSO (Latin American Social Sciences University, Quito Campus) for organizations and individuals who had helped to make the production possible.

A number of American students who are studying environmental conflict resolution also attended the event and had plenty of questions. The students had recently heard a presentation by Ascendant Copper’s general manager and were curious to gather more information about the mining conflict in the Intag valley. They asked about “deforestation” in Intag and appeared to have accepted the company’s line that building a mine would help to stop illegal logging in the region. But this argument (that the company has repeated over and over again) rests on the untested assumption that by creating jobs through mining, illegal logging will stop. It will take much more than creating a few jobs in the mining sector to stop illegal logging in Ecuador’s primary forests or anywhere else in the world. Indeed, illegal logging in primary rainforests is a worldwide problem that ultimately is created by increasing demand for tropical hardwoods. It is far more likely that logging in Intag would increase along with large-scale mining activity, primarily because it would become much easier to transport logs out of the area. It is true that people are cutting down trees in Intag. Based on what I have observed, I would speculate that much of the wood that is cut is used for building houses in nearby towns. It seems to me that if an open-pit mine is built near Junín, we will likely see entire truckloads of trees from Intag heading to the ports of Guayaquil and Esmeraldes (and ultimately for markets in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia). But these are neither arguments for or against mining in Intag: they are arguments about the causes and possible solutions for the widespread problem of illegal logging in South American rainforests. If Ascendant Copper believes that copper mining will stop people from cutting down trees in Intag, then they ought to provide real examples of where open-pit mines in similar environments have solved the illegal logging problem. I have my doubts that such examples exist.

The company has also argued that the area is already deforested, but, this is patently false to anyone who has actually been to Junín or who has seen the company’s own aerial video footage of the mineralized area. Obviously, large parts of Intag are agricultural areas with very little in the way of remaining forest; but most of the Golden I and Golden II mining concessions are located on unsettled primary forest.

Truth is the first casualty of war. And when it come to “selling” a mining exploration project to investors abroad, the hardest currency is sometimes formed of sophistry and illusion. A mining exploration company can try to predict what will happen to the rain forests that surround their projects and be completely wrong without any consequences. They can make an invalid argument about protecting the trees even when they know that it’s invalid. Why? Because their shareholders are investing in minerals, not forests; what ultimately happens to the trees is interesting, but from an investor standpoint, it’s not material.

Santiago Ortiz moderates a lively discussion after a preview of the near-completed film Bajo Suelos Ricos - Under Rich Earth.

Two additional previews of the near-completed film were held in Quito: one at the Centro Cultural Mama Cuchara in Quito’s historical district, and the second at the Faculty of Communication at the Central University.

This now famous tree marks the entrance to the community of Junín.

Canadian journalist Dawn Paley just published an update on the mining conflict in Upside Down World:

Temporary Relief from Mining Conflicts in Ecuador