ABSTRACT
For generations, mining has been part of life for many Colombians. After the 2016 peace accord, many, including the government, counted on mining to deliver a peace dividend. In an effort to accompany local communities, the Catholic Church has responded in a variety of ways to challenges posed by mining. This chapter maps and analyzes that church response. The first section describes the current socio-political context of Colombia. The second section addresses Colombia’s legacy of mining and the trade-off between conservation and extractive-dependent development in a country with a large degree of biodiversity, a fraught history of violent conflict and social inequity, and large amounts of non-renewable resources. The third section presents a national survey of all ecclesiastical jurisdictions examining the dynamics and impacts of mining, and the responses of civil society and the Catholic Church. The fourth section analyzes the church’s response to the challenges of mining and describes the resources and tools it has used when accompanying communities in reconciling mining, integral human development, and peace, and reflects on how the church’s response could be improved.
