Major expansion of protected area to save turtles put on hold by cable

At the end of 2022, three municipal councils of black communities in Chocó celebrated, as if Colombia had won the World Cup, the completion of the process to expand the Acandí, Playón and Playona Fauna and Flora Sanctuary. This protected area would quintuple in size and be key to protecting several species of turtles and other marine life, as well as creating sustainable jobs through tourism. Today, more than two years later, the already completed expansion process continues to be held up by a cable that no one considered.

(Lea esta historia en español, aquí)

It took at least 10 years to create the Sanctuary, a protected area off the Caribbean coast of Chocó. There, in 2013, 26,327 hectares (ha) were declared a strategic ecosystem to save several species, including the Kemp's ridley (Dermochelys coriacea), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles.

Then, the discussion of its expansion took almost another decade, and thanks to the of organizations such as WWF Colombia and the Management of National Natural Parks of Colombia, a new consensus was reached in which the municipal councils of Cocomaseco, Cocomanorte and Cocomasur promoted the process of prior consultation, a fundamental step in the development of environmental projects or the expansion of protected areas, leaving everything ready for the Acandí, Playón and Playona Fauna Sanctuary to have a total of 102,334.2 hectares.

"What is happening here with the three community councils is a must for the management of a protected area. It was fundamental that agreements were made with the councils to participate in the whole process, that there was prior consultation, and that management measures were established. This is fundamental and should be the case everywhere. This is not happening in all areas of the country, and we hope that this will be an example, a success story, to replicate good governance with community participation," ecologist Carlos Mauricio Herrera, who advised the process at the time for WWF Colombia, told EL TIEMPO in 2022.

At that time, two years ago, it was taken for granted that this protected area would be expanded and become the key to creating a marine corridor in the Caribbean, an area free of industrial fishing where species could coexist with humans. In the end, however, this did not happen. Months after everything was ready, an electrical interconnection cable (also planned more than a decade ago) put the brakes on the plans.

It is the Colombia-Panama Electric Interconnection (I) submarine cable, developed by ISA Interconexión Eléctrica. According to the energy company, when Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, the company in charge of the expansion project, initiated the istrative procedure of prior consultation before the Directorate of the National Authority for Prior Consultation (DAN) of the Ministry of the Interior, neither ISA nor the Colombia-Panama Interconnection project were invited to participate in the prior consultation.

In this sense, what happened is that part of the route proposed for the age of such a cable (which does not yet exist, but is key to the sale of energy from Colombia to Central America and vice versa) overlaps with the expansion polygon in the northwestern area. A total of 20 kilometers of cable (out of the 130 kilometers that make up the line) would through the protected area.

"The overlap problem is actually in the top corner. It is a small triangle in the top corner," says Andres Villegas Ramelli, director of planning and evaluation at ISA.

What has happened, he says, is that there has not been the necessary synergy, and as a result both processes, which are crucial for the country, are now at a standstill. On the one hand, according to the ISA, the electrical interconnection between Colombia and Panama aims to consolidate the interconnection projects and the regional market within the framework of the Mesoamerica Project, and its execution would allow the integration of the Andean market with the Central American market. On the other hand, according to the communities, the reserve needs to be expanded to improve the conservation capacity of the species in the area, which are currently affected by illegal fishing and overfishing, among other problems.

To make matters worse, both parties have already developed previous studies that took several years to complete, and changing them could prolong the process of completing either project. For example, if Parques Nacionales were to change the project and expansion polygons, it would have to repeat the entire process with the communities, technicians and other necessary bodies, which could easily take another decade.

If ISA were to do so, it would have to develop an entirely new technical concept. According to the organization, although this project has been in planning and feasibility studies for more than 20 years, the environmental and technical studies with the current definition of the project began in 2020, which took more than 4 years. Therefore, a change in the current route would require the initiation of new environmental and technical studies to comply with the legislation in of environmental licensing, which, according to the Company, would affect the commitments and objectives of the Government with respect to the Binational Agreements with the Government of Panama.

Now, both organizations are at the same point, and as in the Biodiversity Summit (COP16), the only solution will be to negotiate. As Luisz Olmedo Martínez, General Director of Colombia's National Natural Parks, explained to EL TIEMPO, the declaration of protected areas or their expansion are complex processes that require the examination of multiple environmental, social, political and institutional factors, and in the case of the Acandí, Playón and Playona Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, this is a national priority, which is why the initiative has continued.

According to the official, after a process of dialogue between both parties, work is currently underway to reach a consensus that will allow ISA to install the interconnecting cable and National Parks to expand the Sanctuary, a protected area that has also been an example to follow in of coordination and between communities and institutions.

"The need was identified to allow the coexistence of two projects of national importance: the expansion of the Sanctuary and the electrical interconnection with Central America. Both processes go back more than 10 years. After a detailed analysis with the sectors involved, a path was identified that would allow both projects to move forward for the benefit of the country. Now it is up to us, as Colombia's National Natural Parks, to continue this process from a technical-scientific point of view and, above all, together with the communities that have accompanied this conservation process with enthusiasm and commitment," said Martínez.

The expansion of the protected area has become increasingly fundamental, according to community such as Emigdio Pertuz, legal representative of the Cocomanorte Community Council. Just a few days ago, he warned that the protected coasts of the area were being fished with trammel nets, a fishing technique that is extremely harmful to the ecosystem.

Marine biologist and director of Sharky Management and Consulting, Carlos Julio Polo, explains that the expansion of these areas is key not only for the conservation of key species such as turtles, but also for the consolidation of a marine corridor in the Caribbean, a debt owed by countries that have focused more on the Pacific.

"One of the advantages of being able to expand protected areas and continue to create marine corridors is that this is the mechanism we have to create these roads, these pathways that we have to protect migratory species such as sharks," the expert emphasizes.

For now, only an agreement that allows both parties to move forward without affecting the species, but without affecting the ecosystem, could be the solution that the Caribbean needs to begin creating the mega marine corridor that will allow turtles to reach the coasts of Colombia and the country to achieve its economic goals.

EDWIN CAICEDO

ENVIRONMENT DESK