Three years after SOSOrinoco started to inform the World Heritage Centre and publishing multiple reports about the critical illegal mining situation, the Maduro Regime finally sent a report on Canaima. The World Heritage Centre emitted a resolution that was approved without discussion or amendments on July 23, 2021

The year 2020 marked the 58th anniversary of the founding
of Canaima National Park, a World Heritage Site (CNP-WHS),
celebrated while the park lay under siege by the illegal mining
operations inside its boundaries as well as in adjacent areas.

What exactly happened in Canaima on December 8-9, 2018?

Runrun.es | August 2020 | SOSOrinoco was interviewed for this article

World Heritage Watch – page 69: Report on Canaima World Heritage Site by SOSOrinoco A gold rush is having a negative impact on Canaima National Park (CNP), a World Heritage Site. Various studies have demonstrated the destruction of at least 521 hectares of its ecosystems It becomes necessary for UNESCO to include CNP on the […]

June 5 2020 World Heritage Watch – page 69 Report on Canaima World Heritage Site by SOS Orinoco

An in depth article by the Wall Street Journal discusses the content of the report presented by SOSOrinoco to International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN & UNESCO in July 2018 on the current gold mining situation in Canaima National Park: A World Heritage Site in Venezuela

Illegal mining within the Canaima National Park in #Venezuela, a World Heritage Site designated by @unescowhc.@NicolasMaduro gov’t is responsible for this ecocide. We should raise our voices against this ecocide @UNEnvironment @UN #sosOrinoco

Downstream from Icabarú, one can see more deforested mining sites along both banks of the Icabarú, and also another settlement with an unpaved landing strip. At the confluence of the Icabarú and Caroní rivers there is a small settlement with a dirt runway for light aircraft, and one can also see mining sites located inside, as well as outside of Canaima National Park. Miners die on a regular basis as a result of being buried alive as flimsy cliffs collapse from the action of pressurized water jets ejected by the monitors used in the hydraulic mining method

In the initial SOS Orinoco report, published in July of 2018, describing mining activity inside Canaima National Park (CNP), a World Heritage Site (WHS) recognized by UNESCO, the authors characterized and explained this phenomenon as being a consequence of the current Venezuelan government’s political strategy of promoting mining activity amidst an economic, social and political collapse that the regime itself has created and promoted. This document is an update of that first report, where the authors endeavored to describe what has happened in CNP and what has been the institutional response from UNESCO, IUCN and the Venezuelan government itself.

In the midst of political and economic turmoil in this South American country, some of the world’s most scenic and biodiverse public lands are at risk. By Kim O’Connell