(9 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 23 September 2024
1. Aerial shot of Atrato River
2. Various aerial shots of deforestation caused by Illegal gold mining by Atrato River
VOICEOVER: Just a year ago this area was thick jungle, now it’s just pebbles and sediment. Illegal gold mining has scared the earth in this small riverside community in the poor northwest Choco region. For a decade, it’s been the fastest growing criminal economy, rivaling the drug trade.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 24 September 2024
3. Wide of machinery used in illegal gold mining
VOICEOVER: Heavy machinery dredges the river.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 23 September 2024
4. Bernardino Mosquera navigating the Atrato River on boat
5. Various of boats on river
VOICEOVER: Bernadino is one of 13 river guardians. The guardians report to government institutions on environmental issues, helping protect the river after a 2016 order granting it rights equivalent to a human being.
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Bernardino Mosquera, Guardian of the Atrato River:
"Illegal mining affects ecosystems in every way. Because firstly, it leaves a degraded land. There are no trees. It’s drying up water sources, it’s contaminating it with mercury."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quibdo, Colombia – 23 September 2024
6. View of the city of Quibdo from the river
7. Boats on the river
VOICEOVER: The riverside’s residents rely on the Atrato for transport, food and water. But the environmental destruction is changing the rivers routes and the use of mercury in gold mining is poisoning the water.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 24 September 2024
8. Various of people loading boats with fuel for use in illegal gold mining
VOICEOVER: High poverty rates push many into the illegal trade – a vicious cycle destroying the land and river they depend on.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paimado, Choco, Colombia – 24 September 2024.
9. Bernardino showing his bulletproof vest
VOICEOVER : Guardians like Bernadino, who has a bullet proof vest, and his colleague Juan Carlos have received death threats.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 26 September 2024
10. Various of ‘River Guardian’ Juan Carlos navigating the Atrato River
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Juan Carlos Palacios, Guardian of the Atrato River:
"It gives me a lot of sadness when I see how often they pass with machinery without any controls. They come to our territories where we can’t even talk sometimes because the mining comes with the armed actors (illegal armed groups)."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atrato River, Choco, Colombia – 24 September 2024
12. Mid of machinery used in illegal gold mining
13. Aerial shot of illegal gold mine
VOICEOVER: Without intervention from the government, the guardians feel they’ve already lost the battle for the river.
STORYLINE:
From the sky it’s easy to see the destruction illegal gold mining has brought on Colombia’s Atrato river.
The river, in the northwest Choco region, was filled with trees and healthy shrubs just a year ago.
But heavy machinery has dredged the riverbeds and deforested the land.
In 2016 this river was deemed so important that 13 people were given the title of ‘river guardians’.
The guardians work unpaid alongside government institutions to try and protect the river, although they are becoming increasingly threatened by armed groups involved in illegal mining.
The river’s legal status was a first for Latin America, and when the guardians were established.
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