The 6th International Congress of Youth Environmentalists Focused on Mining Contamination
By Jed Koball, Companionship Facilitator, Peru
_medium300.jpg)
Participants of the Youth Congress demonstrate in front of the Regional Health Department in Huancayo. Photo: Jay Gregory
Over 200 people gathered in the ecological city of Concepcion in the central Andes of Peru, from January 14-17, for the 6th International Congress of Youth Environmentalists, sponsored by the Red Uniendo Manos Peru. With participants not only coming from across Peru but also from across the Americas – Bolivia, Chile, Canada and the United States – there were a diversity of perspectives and presentations on ways to address critical environmental issues facing the world today.
The high level of participation and intense dialogue around topics of water management, climate change, contamination from the mining industry, bioremediation of soils, ecological architecture, trade reform and more provided a rich context not only for the promotion of public policy and cultural change but just as importantly the continued formation of young leaders to guide us in our care for Creation.
Unique to this year’s Congress was the collaboration with the municipality of Concepcion. Declared to be an “ecological city”, participants were engaged by local municipal projects to treat black waters, facilitate recycling of plastics, and generate compost from local waste. Also, participants were treated to presentations from representatives of the Ministry of Environment who presented on a proposed model to address environmental impact studies related to mining projects.
Mining in general was a theme that dominated much of the presentations as various participants addressed the extractive industry from different vantage points, including environmental studies in Bolivia, theological discourse in Chile, and investors’ rights in the U.S. and Peru. One notable presentation was that of Dr. Clarice Hutchens from Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery in St. Louis, Missouri who presented on bioremediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals. Included in her presentation was a proposal for a study of the bioremediation of soils in La Oroya, Peru, where over 2300 km2 of soil have been contaminated due to emissions from the metallurgical complex that has been operating since 1922.
Youth from the Congress check out the water treatment plant in the Ecological City of Concepcion. Photo:Jay Gregory
Building upon the presentation of Dr. Hutchens, as well as other keynote addresses regarding the contamination and health risks in La Oroya, the Congress gathered in Huancayo, the capital city of the region of Junin, to protest before the Regional Health Department, demanding that it complete its obligation (as established in a regional ordinance that was proposed by the Red Uniendo Manos Peru and unanimously approved in August of 2012) to provide specialized health attention to those affected by the contamination from the mining industry in the region. The protest successfully achieved a meeting between civil society and regional officials to discuss the very implementation of such health care.
The successes of the Congress should not be limited to such finite goals achieved. In the end, hundreds of relationships were fostered, hearts were moved, minds were informed, and the basis of future movements of youth for the protection and restoration of Creation was formed.
