Proposed Eco-Park in Southwest Antioquia Dropped over Quebradona Mining Concerns

Medellin-based family-welfare organization Comfama announced June 8 that it has decided to suspend its proposed ecotourism park in southwest Antioquia because of feared potential contamination from the proposed Quebradona copper-gold mine near Jericó.

According to the Comfama press bulletin, the suspension of the proposed eco-park near the La Guamo gorge means that the organization “will look for another place in the Southwest of Antioquia to carry out” its proposed eco-park.

“In 2018, Comfama selected a lot located on the border between Jericó and Támesis to develop its ecotourism park project in the Southwest, but later learned that the main infrastructure of the Quebradona mine by AngloGold Ashanti would be built on neighboring properties,” according to the organization.

“Consequently, Comfama contracted six studies to estimate the possible impact on the landscape, waters, fauna and flora, among other aspects, from which it appears that the mining project presented in the EIA [environmental impact assessment] that was filed with the [Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales, ANLA] environmental authority is not technically and environmentally compatible with our on-site ecotourism park.”

The proposed park aims to attract eco-oriented tourists and bird-watchers to a tropical dry forest region, where they would enjoy the “landscape, culture and [natural] history of the Southwest,” according to Comfama.

While Comfama continues as an official intervenor in the environmental licensing process underway for the proposed Quebradona mine, approval of such a license would compromise the proposed eco-park site, according to the organization.

“Consequently, Comfama will resume the search for places for the development of its ecotourism park, which could be in alliance with territorial entities or companies,” according to the press bulletin.