Erdiz, a pulse between traditional grazing and mining extractivism

the pasture of erdiz, close to Aldude mountain, it is best appreciated by local farmers baztan, in addition to Special protected area (ZEC) as part of the Natura 2000 network, but its future is uncertain by one of the locations of the Mining project Artesiaga.

This business initiative Magnesite Navarre (MAGNA) of the Roullier Group, a French multinational, plans to extract up to 600,000 tons of ore per year for 25 years, but a large part of the local population and environmental groups have spoken out against it.

Faced with the open opposition of the Baztán City Council, MAGNA wants to process the permits as a Supra-Municipal Incidence Sector Project (PSIS); Last October, 80 percent of Navarra’s regional parliament approved his statement as an investment of provincial interest, with EH Bildu, Podemos-Ahal Dugu and Izquierda-Ezkerra voting against.

According to company EFE sources, its current site the Eugui, who “employs 232 people, mainly from the Baztán, Erro or Esteríbar valleys”, will run out in “six or seven years.”

The sources add that “a proposal has been made by pasture specialists to tailor the project and action to the requests” of the Valley’s municipalities and ranchers and claim to “increase the pasture’s reception capacity by 60 percent.” will increase”. “. .

“From an environmental point of view, there is no real alternative to the current location outside of the Natura 2000 network space,” they claim, adding that their idea is to adopt “an integrated restoration model.”

Opposition from the local community

MAGNA already tried to implement this project in 2005, when it received the support of the General Council of the Baztán Valley, and the following year Erdiz Bizirik platform as a popular opposition.

Jon Elizetxe, a farmer from Baztán and spokesperson for the platform, explained to EFE that in 2008 MAGNA rejected Erdiz’s location and tried to develop a new project in Cilveti, but a Supreme Court ruling “succeeded in 2015 stop” by affecting the same SAC Monte Aldude.

For example, the company resumed its original idea in Erdiz a year and a half ago, this time without “creating support in the Valley among the population or among the members of the General Council,” said the mayor of Baztán, Joseba Otondo.

Right away 5.8% of the working population is professionally involved in the primary sectorOtondo describes Baztán’s socio-economic structure as “diversified”, although with a “much greater” importance of livestock than in the rest of Navarre, where the percentage “hardly reaches 2%”, which is why it directly affects is on or indirectly on other economic sectors, such as local businesses or tourism.

So if it continues mining “mortgages them in the future” and gives them “little in the present”by being based on a model that creates “zones of sacrifice” and “to the detriment of local communities, but to the benefit of MAGNA’s boards of directors and shareholders”.

Otondo recalled that the General Assembly was a “referendum binding” from the formal law governing these initiatives, but it was not possible to convene them due to “reception of the refusal from the central government”, so they tested “the non-binding referendum consultation model and consultation through the village mayors”, which had to be suspended because “not allowed”.

Guk argi dugu: ez dugu meategi proiektuaren alde bozkatuko. Cold lurrak, bad erabakiak. Bozkatu ez, bozkatu #ErdizBizirik!#A20HerriGaldeketak pic.twitter.com/MAqLtH7Uhu

— Erdiz Bizirik (@ErdizBizirik) November 10, 2022

Despite this, opposition to the project continues, with protests from environmental entities such as SEO/Birdlifewhose representative for Navarre and the Basque Country, Kiko Álvarez, does not believe that a proper recovery of the mining area is possible.

“From a natural point of view, you won’t be able to compensate in five years for what nature has produced in thousands of years,” he emphasizes.

Álvarez describes the project as “cruelty” and warns that it will mean “eating up the mountain, dismantling the top of the green zone and generating some hills that will affect the hydrology of the space”, in addition to extending the access road, which would cover the nearby beech forest affect, also of the Red Natura 2000, and biodiversity, both local and migratory.