Analysis of social perception and field verification as a route to evaluation of environmental liabilities in Colombia: Case study Cesar (Colombia)

Abstract

The extractive sector is positioned as one of the most polluting activities, contributing considerably to the environmental liabilities (EL) generation, especially in countries with a significant dependence on mining resources exploitation, such as Latin America. Colombia represents a good approximation to this scenario, mainly due to the convergence between high biodiversity and mineral deposits (first producer of emeralds worldwide, and first and second in coal and gold for Latin America). In Colombia, the economic valuation and the classification of EL have been proposed as tools to manage Els. However, a process of valuation and classification that includes a pluralistic approach is essential to obtain a better understanding of the implications of the EL in the territories, and with it, the validation of the management mechanisms. A case study of environmental liabilities for coal mining is shown, through which the sufficiency and assertiveness of the classification and economic valuation of liabilities developed by Rodríguez-Zapata and Ruiz-Agudelo (2021) is analyzed. The evaluated EL typologies were considered as an adequate tool to support the operationalization of EL focused on its management, however, due to the null capacity to detect the mismatch between a legal/administrative declaration of remediation of damages and a real remediation, this is considered insufficient to prioritize the degree of EL management and with this its urgency for intervention. In relation to the revision to the economic valuation, the reported amount of US$ 2.4 billion seems to be underestimating the costs of the ELs, mainly due to the magnitude of the human and natural communities on which each of these falls.