MINERA TRES VALLES SUPPORTS WORKING PLAN OF
THE RAJA DE MANQUEHUA NATURE SANCTUARY DEVELOPMENT

On May 12, 13 and 14, the first planning meetings were held with local organizations, aiming to define the base ideas for the management and sustainable development of the preservation area.

On January 22, 2018, the Council of Ministers for Sustainability proclaimed the Raja de Manquehua, which is one of the most iconic sites known to Salamanca, to be a Nature Sanctuary. Through this declaration, the Farming Community of Chalinga is the entity managing this project that achieved the protection of 2,242 hectares of native flora and fauna.

Minera Tres Valles, through its firm commitment to the environment, has collaboratively developed with the Farming Community in order to preserve the Raja de Manquehua site, which has been characterized as a great source of biodiversity within the region. The act to consider this protected area as a Nature Sanctuary has as its initial phase the execution of a management plan, which is a technical instrument that meets the requirements established in current regulations via sustainable planning and local ecological knowledge.

By going to the drawing board with a variety of parties involved in the execution of this initiative, the managing bodies such as the Farming Community of Chalinga, Minera Tres Valles, water channel consultants, professionals from Salamanca as well as the company in charge of technical planning, Green Business, managed to achieve the vision set in place for this natural refuge.

Within the work activities carried out over the weekend, the professionals from the consulting firm held a meeting with the members of the community, aiming to socialize the implications of the management plan as well as consider the points of view of the local people in the development and execution of this preservation site.

Danis Vargas, a resident of the town of El Tebal and member of the Farming Community of Chalinga, stressed that this was “a very beautiful and entertaining opportunity because we were able to give our opinions on various items regarding the Raja de Manquehua Sanctuary, and I love that the whole community can come together so that the Sanctuary can be a place to go and have a pleasant time.”

The president of the Farming Community, Arturo Godoy, stressed that the “shifts were very intense and required a lot of work, but the result of satisfactorily learning these subjects was very rewarding. All of the participating parties and those that will take part in the future must be aware of, and know how, this plan to conserve our resources will be carried out.”

For Sebastián Cortés, Sustainability Manager at Minera Tres Valles (collaborating company in the development of the project), this initiative “fulfilled the objective of including all the involved parties in the planning process, which is key to deciding what we are going to protect and how we will go about doing it. There is a consensus among the participants regarding how iconic the Raja de Manquehua Sanctury is for the zone, which is why it is of the utmost importance to protect and conserve it.