Venezuela tries an environmental rebrand, but critics aren’t buying it

Over the last few years, the Venezuelan government has taken a surprising interest in the environment. President Nicolás Maduro, usually silent on the topic, recently posted on social media about a “green Venezuela.” He announced a “world congress of eco-socialism” for December and has called for greater support for countries impacted by climate change.

Yet for many observers, the environmental rhetoric rings hollow. Oil spills continue to pollute the country’s coastline, and illegal gold mining has expanded into protected areas, often with tacit government approval. What Maduro is really after, critics say, is new revenue and a cleanup of the country’s reputation.

“There has been an attempt to reintegrate Maduro’s government into the international community through green policy announcements,” an activist, who wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns, told Mongabay. “…It would be somewhat naïve to think there’s a genuine environmental interest here.”

Last month, Maduro unveiled the Gran Misión Madre Tierra, or “Great Mother Earth Mission,” designed to address Venezuela’s climate emergency. Among other things, the mission mandates the creation of new reforestation efforts, climate change adaptation and response programs, a national waste management initiative, and sustainable agricultural practices. The mission also includes expanding environmental education in schools and protecting the headwaters of the country’s rivers in the Andes and páramos.

Critics say the mission strategically omits some of the country’s most pressing environmental issues, such as illegal gold mining. Last year, Venezuela lost an estimated 9,531 hectares (23,552 acres) of rainforest to mining, largely overseen by criminal groups working with the armed forces.

Protected area services are too diminished to take on such a serious problem, according to SOS Orinoco, a group advocating for the Venezuelan Amazon. It told Mongabay that many protected areas only have around a dozen rangers to patrol millions of hectares, leaving much of the rainforest vulnerable to extractive activities.

In Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, illegal mining has impacted at least 1,582 hectares (3,909 acres) of the core zone and 1,440 hectares (3,558 acres) of the buffer zone, according to a World Heritage Watch report. Unregulated luxury tourism has also become a fad there, with helicopters traveling to fragile tepuis, the rock plateaus where endemic species and sacred Indigenous territory are at risk, critics said.

“Real environmental policy has been devastating due to the intense degradation and destruction of ecosystems in the name of a series of economic policies,” the activist said, “especially those that have intensified with Maduro’s expansion of extractives.”

Venezuela’s Ministry of People’s Power for Ecological Mining Development didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

Canaima has suffered considerably since the creation of the Orinoco Mining Arc in 2016, Maduro’s attempt to underpin a struggling economy by intensifying gold and other mineral extraction from a 11.2-million (27.7-million-acre) stretch of Amazon Rainforest. Last year, the government denied that the arc overlapped with the park or that mining had crossed into its boundaries, telling UNESCO that ranger presence and patrols had actually improved. UNESCO said the government hasn’t provided enough information to confirm the impact of illegal mining, and reiterated its intention to visit the site — something the government has been delaying for years.

The creation of environmental programs like the Gran Misión Madre Tierra is a way to appease the international community without having to address the real problems on the ground, SOS Orinoco said. It also helps delay the UNESCO visit to Canaima National Park.

“The goal is to delay and postpone that visit as much as possible, ideally forever,” one of the group’s members, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Mongabay. “They’ll just produce report after report, all fluff, things they say they want to do, little things they did. They’ll exaggerate them and present them as major achievements.”

Climate financing on the rise, NGOs on the decline

For years, the Venezuelan economy has suffered from high inflation and even hyperinflation. Sanctions by the U.S., EU and Canada have isolated the economy even further. To help fill its coffers, the government has involved itself in mining and drug trafficking, but may have found a new source of revenue in climate finance, SOS Orinoco said. If it can sanitize its reputation, it may have access to large international backers, the group said.

Earlier this year, government officials met with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to discuss cleaning up Lake Maracaibo, which has been heavily impacted by oil spills. It also has three deals totaling $16 million with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) focused on agricultural adaptation policies, managing invasive species, and conserving the Amazon.

In a letter, Venezuelan officials told the GCF that the country had adopted an “ambitious climate agenda.” But critics question whether the money will be used responsibly.

“There are no plans, no programs, no projects being carried out,” the member of SOS Orinoco said of the government’s recent deals. “What really matters to them is just social media.”

The GEF told Mongabay that all 144 countries where it funds projects must comply with a comprehensive set of policies and safeguards to ensure their integrity, and that it has so far not received any grievances about Venezuela. The GCF and FAO didn’t respond to a request for comment.

At the same time that the government lobbies for international funding, conservation work by civil society groups has become increasingly rare. Scientists have reportedly been blocked from oil spill sites to prevent bad press for PDVSA, the state-owned oil operator. Dwindling government assistance for environmental NGOs has forced many of them to lay off staff. Some groups look for financing abroad, but donors are skeptical about involving themselves with messy Venezuelan politics.

This month, hundreds of academics and activists signed a public letter denouncing the Maduro regime’s persecution of “university community members,” many of them working on the Orinoco Mining Arc. It said it rejected the government’s attempt to foster a climate of fear and censorship, and called on universities and research centers in Spain and Latin America to express solidarity.

“Environmental organizations, as well as Indigenous leaders, are finding it increasingly difficult to do their work,” Olnar Ortiz, national coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples Penal Forum, a legal aid NGO, told Mongabay last year. “It’s really difficult to go [to Venezuela] yourself because of the security issues and how hard it is to get access.”

Venezuela is expected to have representatives at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30), hosted in Belém, Brazil, this November. One of the goals of the conference will be to provide $300 billion of climate financing to developing nations. Brazil is also hoping to implement the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a mechanism that pays developing countries for conserving tropical forests.

SOS Orinoco and other observers said giving any of that money to Venezuela would be a waste. They said the government is putting on a good face for the conference, but has no interest in conservation.

“The only conclusion is that this is a façade for a certain audience,” the member of SOS Orinoco said, “and that it allows them to continue with their exploitation schemes.”

Banner image: Flare stacks release gases at the Jose Antonio Anzoategui oil complex in Barcelona, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

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