Guainia
90% indigenous reservation with highest poverty; 1,565kg illegal gold extracted 2015-2023; 13 mining concessions threaten sacred Mavicure mountains.
About 90% of Guainía is indigenous reservation territory, yet the department has one of Colombia's highest multidimensional poverty indices. This paradox defines a region where the formal economy barely exists and informal gold mining fills the vacuum. Puerto Inírida's mayor acknowledged the obvious: 'Mining is an informal activity in this municipality, but it's really the dynamic of the economy.' At least 1,565 kilograms of gold were extracted between 2015 and 2023 from protected areas, part of the estimated 80% of Colombian gold exports that are illegal.
The Guiana Shield that underlies Guainía holds biological importance for the entire planet—the Puinawai National Natural Reserve alone contains 14 distinct ecosystems. In 2014, the government designated the Fluvial Star of Inírida (250,000+ hectares where three Amazon rivers converge) as a Ramsar wetland. Yet dredges operate in these protected waters without consequence. Thirteen mining concession proposals threaten indigenous lands around the sacred Mavicure mountains, where 2,000 Puinave people live. Some communities have allied with informal miners; others resist.
By 2026, Guainía will test whether indigenous governance can coexist with—or resist—gold extraction. The economic logic is brutal: with no roads, no formal jobs, and no state services, mining offers the only cash income. If authorities enforce protections in the Ramsar site and indigenous consultations block concessions near Mavicure, Guainía could preserve its ecosystems. If not, the 'fluvial star' will tarnish to gold.