El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America has become the first country in the world to ban metal mining after a series of disputes with a Canadian-Australian company over the environmental aspects of the gold project. The country also has a partial ban in elements, such as the cyanide. The gold project was established between the company mentioned earlier and El Salvador. This project was supposed to bring economic benefits for the country. It is important to recall that metal mining has been one of the biggest sources of the income of the country since the 1990s after its civil war. Moreover, El Salvador is facing external debts and does not have many sources to pay it back. Hence, the gold project was seen as a crucial source of income. However, El Salvador has terminated this project because it was going to do a lot of environmental damages. A group composed of officials, lobbyists, academics and the church were united for the bill passed in the country against gold mining. The draft law against mining passed with 69 votes in favor, even though only 43 ballots were required for the bill to be passed. El Salvador fought a suit against the by Pac Rim Cayman, which was the company in charge of the gold project. After the dispute, the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes) has mandated this company to pay El Salvador 8 million plus interests. None of the members of the Canadian-Australian …show more content…
Can El Salvador find ways in the future to ameliorate metal mining without causing environmental damages? What would you say was the reaction of many Salvadorians that relied on metal mining as a source of income? After discussed mining and its pro and contra this semester, what would you said were the cost of banning metal mining in El Salvador? Were the arguments provided to prohibit this activity strong
The article describes well the scientific elements so almost anybody could understand what the article is trying to convey, however a prior knowledge of the metals tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold; and their role in technology would be beneficial. The knowledge of the metals worth would also be helpful to understand the conflict. Also a knowledge of the electronics involved in smartphones would help with an understanding of the importance of the 3TG metals. The article introduces the knowledge that it is possible for the production of the 3TG minerals without fuelling the conflict in the Congo. It is possible for the minerals to be vetted to know if they had been involved in conflict however the companies involved are unwilling to be involved in the process. The article expresses a number of significant relevant influences, one in particular being political influences. The issue surrounding the mining of conflict minerals not only influences the government of the Democratic
| From a social perspective there is far less reticence about adverse environmental impact in Brazil as opposed to the UK for example, and as such Brazil and Petrobras have taken steps to reduce and control adverse effects of their exploration efforts (Petrobras, 2011). The Salt Institute (SI, 2012) indicate that mining for Rock salt does cause known environmental stresses such as fragmentation and also indicates that transportation of the salt can have adverse environmental impact. The SI strongly advocates the use of permits in order to regulate the industry, a view shared by Mol (2010).
The current state of the nation's resources is in a very poor state, with toxic rivers and depleted natural resources, all that is left in the nation is the service and technology industries.With the large influence that gangs hold in the economy the nation's service and agriculture industry is limited to 15 percent, much lower than more developed nations such as the US whose own economy is service based. Also the natural environment plays a pretty big role in the economy, with a large sector of the economy being dominated by agriculture, it's easy to understand why the economy suffers when the nation's own poor waste management system results in toxification of is rivers. With the global business economy I don’t El Salvador's technology to give access to regular citizens. Because that haven't grown in that technology part where everybody has access to a phone and the internet. And this will come back and bit them in the butt because of how the countries around them are advancing and there not in the Global Business. Well also the fact that El Salvador is apart of the Dominican
For my research paper i’m curious to know who is in control of south america is it really the authorizes or the gangs. I have looked into 5 sources on this topic to see if indeed this is true. I have looked into this article, they studied and examined the country of El Salvador. El salvador is a third world country that has most of its citizens work in fields and barely makes any money, most of them starve to death or die from lack of nutrition, due to them get very little of everything. Information to a recent study in El Salvador were far more likely to believe that the gangs not the government but the gangs are in charge of the country, this is a understatement how the country’s failure to establish a peace and order in many of the nation’s areas has left them under the control of the gang organizations.A survey of 1,000 citizens of El salvador conducted by El Mundo between October 28 and November 1 showed that forty-two percent of Salvadorans believe that gangs rule their
The Republic of Costa Rica is a small nation; it is home to just over 4.8 million people in an area roughly comparable to Vermont and New Hampshire combined. The land that comprises modern Costa Rica is significantly lacking in terms of ‘classical natural resources,’ that is, fossil fuel deposits, and precious metals, among others. Sections of the nation that do contain such deposits are often protected national forests, or in some cases purposefully undeveloped. Thus, economic development historically oriented towards export-focused agrarian production. Despite this, Costa Rica has been able to commit to a renewable energy grid, abolish its military, and in recent years, develop industries in consumer electronics, medical equipment, and information technology. One of the most curious questions concerning the peculiar situation in Costa Rica is “Why?” Why has a small Latin American nation been able to completely reform energy production and do away with its military far earlier than its neighbors and much of the world? Ironically, Costa Rica has been aided in these endeavors by its lack of resources, in a ‘reverse-resource curse.’ That is, a lack of resources has contributed positively toward the development of a stable government and economy. Without large domestic sources of fossil fuels, energy production has specialized in the form of renewable generation. Similarly, the Costa Rican government’s ability to abolish the military stems almost
The Republic of El Salvador’s geography has had a strong impact on its history and politics. Its hilly central plateau gave birth to El Salvador’s early civilization, and it’s many rivers allowed large tribes to grow along its banks and in its valleys. El Salvador’s developed international relations with surrounding states were a link with other tribes offering different cultural exchanges, trades, and religions. It’s fertile Southern Mountainous region has much of El Salvador’s coffee exports and serves as El Salvador’s bread basket. El Salvador is mostly uninhabitable, with vast areas in the Northern and Southern regions covered by volcanoes, mountains and forestry. The difficulty in inhabiting much of its territory has put pressure on the
El Salvador, or Republic of El Salvador, is a densely-populated country in Central America. There are about 6 million people living in slightly more than 8,000 square miles, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the Western Hemisphere. It is the smallest country in Central America- slightly smaller than the size of the state of Massachusetts. El Salvador is mountainous- the main mountain range is the Sierra Madre.
The mining industries consist of both metallic and non metallic minerals, which include, copper, gold, iron, limestone, marble and zinc. Additionally, manufacturing in this region is focused on the forest industry which generally produces lumber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michoac%C3%A1n). Although, Mexico has the second largest economy in Latin America the socioeconomic gap remains vast amongst its people. Mexico’s current political and economic circumstances affect many families living there, forcing them to make complex life choices that are not always easy. It is common for families to split up and re-locate to other places in search of shelter, more food, and employment. Such harsh consequences are a direct result of an unbalanced distribution of wealth among its states, in conjunction with, a corrupt government. Existing in conditions like these have affects on educational outcomes; outcomes that can influence parental responses to changing school and everyday life quality for themselves and for their families. As indicated by the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, “Mexico has lagged notably in promoting an effective rule of law and strengthening its legal framework and that the judicial system remains vulnerable to political interference”. Furthermore, “While the specific causes of this substantial change in the
El Salvador is a small country in Central America. Its capital is San Salvador. The country’s official language is Spanish. Many people there also speak the language of Nahua. Although El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, it is also the most populated. It is well into its demographic transition, experiencing slower population growth.(CIA) El Salvador still tends to struggle with poverty, inequality and crimes.It has been plagued by violence and poverty due to over-population and class struggles. Most of this country’s population is Mestizo. Mostly people in El Salvador like to live on the more country side. There is more space to grow crops and they are poor, so they can’t really live in the luxury. San Salvador is mostly
One positive impact of copper mining is that it has a great impact on the economy, as it is a multi-purpose metal. It can be used for infrastructure, motor vehicle radiators and heating systems as well as electrical generators and motors for electrical wiring. Furthermore, various establishments will purchase the metal. Although it’s not as costly as gold, copper is sought out for its versatility.
Mining is the process or industry of obtaining coal or other minerals from a mine. A new mining project, called the Back Forty, is was proposed and is located on the Michigan and Wisconsin border. This project is said to begin around 2020 and created concern for some people. The Aquila Resources Inc. is the company behind this proposal, and they said “it will invest more than $300 million to extract gold, zinc, copper and silver along the Menominee River” (Bergquist, 2016). The Menominee river is part of the border between Wisconsin and Michigan. The mine will have large effects on the environment and economy for Lake Michigan and Wisconsin. The next paragraphs will discuss the positive and negative effects that the Back Forty could create. One side would be for the mine and say that the economic benefits would outweigh the negative effects on the environment, while the opposing side would say the opposite.
Although mining positively benefits the needs of people in our daily lives, but it has a negative downfall when it comes to environmental issues. To be capable of extracting the ores from deep below the earth’s surface, it requires miners to excavate the land, removing all necessary living things just to construct a pit to proceed with the operation. Forests being harvested, wildlife habitats being destroyed, Rivers being diverted to some other areas making other plantations die in dehydration. Not only the animals and plants suffer from the impacts of mining, people also faces problems ahead of them too. Mining impacts the people by forcing residents out from their lands, preventing the residents’ access to clean water source. The worst of all, residents exposed themselves to
More money and time may be necessary, but the results would benefit both the international community and El Salvador. If El Salvador became balanced the could restore their economy. This positively affects many countries since El Salvador has cheap labor which can lead to many more job openings. These jobs would employ most of the people ending most of the poverty in the country. Along with putting the kibosh on poverty could come great political benefits such as the military and higher classes not being in charge of the country. With the economy and democracy fixed, the rebellions, and the general injustices would diminish. They would slowly stop due to the increase of equality between socio-economic classes, and political parties. The International community would benefit because a good economy in a country with cheap labor would mean more manufactured goods to being sold in those countries. If El Salvador had an intervention by the international community, it would greatly benefit both El Salvador and the community. It would be in the best interest the international community to help El Salvador become stable and restore the peace, justice, and unity it longs
For the Latin American/Caribbean region, one human induced environmental problem would be the severity of deforestation due to mining practices. According to Lisa Naughton’s lecture, the price of gold has skyrocketed due to the stock market crash, leading to a higher demand of gold and driving roughly 7,000 miners into the forest, making this a global resource demand. Gold mining has a significant history South America. According to page 281 of the textbook, Spain demanded that their colonies provide gold and silver for the Spanish crown during the 1500s, with the crown itself demanding 20% of all mining profits. Also, outsiders are no strangers to destroying South America’s natural resources for their own benefit. As stated on page 281,
El Salvador was once a home to many indigenous groups, most know the Mayans, the Nahuatl, and the industrious Pipil. Many of these groups were wiped out as they faced a sickness in the form of smallpox and battle with new settlers from Spain, under the rule of the Spanish king. A Spanish conquistador by the name of Pedro de Alvarado led the quest alongside his brother Gonzalo de Alvarado and their army of Spanish troops. Pedro was quickly disappointed to find that most of the indigenous people of El Salvador didn’t have the amount of gold that Guatemala (a neighboring