This time there are two main differences from the last significant mentions in 2005. Now, it has the backing of President Iv\u00e1n Duque but a community that in the last decade has built a sustainable and vibrant local economy around whale watching opposes it.<\/p>\n
Duque highlighted the project in his presidential campaign<\/a> last year. \u201cI won’t rest until I see the \u00c1nimas-Nuqu\u00ed corridor connected to the Tribug\u00e1 port,\u201d he told an audience in Manizales, one of the main cities in the coffee-growing region driving the project, a week after winning the election.<\/p>\n \u201cThe future of Choc\u00f3\u2019s competitiveness, the future of the connection of the Colombian coffee region and the Pacific, combined with port opportunities, will undoubtedly involve Tribug\u00e1,\u201d he said<\/a> in Quibd\u00f3<\/a> last November, during one of his Saturday workshops with local communities.<\/p>\n Investors say the gulf is the perfect spot for a port. The sea reaches depths of 20 metres just 2km from the beach. They estimate<\/a> there would be no limitations to the anchoring and berthing of ships with loads of up to 200,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n According to calculations<\/a> by the Archimedes Society, the agency responsible for promoting the project, the Tribug\u00e1 port could reduce freight transport costs by up to 90%. It could become the third largest port in the country after Buenaventura<\/a>, further south on the Pacific coast, and Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast, it says.<\/p>\n Areas of greater environmental sensitivity than Tribug\u00e1 coexist with ports<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Its viability also depends on a proposed road between Quibd\u00f3<\/a> and Nuqu\u00ed, which would traverse the forest and the biodiverse Baud\u00f3 mountain range.<\/p>\n The re-emergence of the port whipped up a storm ever since Duque’s government named<\/a> it in the first draft of the National Development Plan, presented to Congress this year. He eventually backed down, but included a reference to a \u201cdeep-water port in the North Pacific\u201d that could not refer to any other.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n If it materialises, the port could bring greater economic opportunities to Choc\u00f3, the department with the highest levels of extreme poverty in Colombia. The environmental cost, however, could also be high. Choc\u00f3\u2019s coastal region is one of 36 biodiversity \u2018hotspots<\/a>\u2019 globally and is comparable to the Amazon rainforest.<\/p>\n Between June and October, more than 800 whales come to reproduce on the dark-sand beaches of Nuqu\u00ed municipality, where the Gulf of Tribug\u00e1 is located, during their annual trek from Antarctica via Chilean Patagonia.<\/p>\n Thousands of tourists follow the whales, watching them jump among the waves with their calves. It is a remarkable turnaround for the mostly Afro-Colombian inhabitants of Nuqu\u00ed, which until two decades ago was synonymous with poverty and armed groups like FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN).<\/p>\n Locals communities attribute a nationwide tourism boom to the 2016 Peace Accord. Last year, 4.3 million tourists visited<\/a> the country, more than double that of 2014.<\/p>\n In 2018, 9,100 tourists came to this remote Pacific destination, despite poor air connections and roads. For people of the local municipality, who number 8,958, this is considered significant.<\/p>\n 9100<\/p>\n \u201cThat is economy on a very good scale,\u201d says Josefina Klinger, who has been promoting community tourism together with her organisation, Mano Cambiada (Lending a Hand).<\/p>\n \u201cOur vision of development is one based on the gifts of the land. It may not be so in Medell\u00edn or Manizales, but we \u2013 the ancestral peoples who have lived here for centuries \u2013 are defined by water and the forest, which have traditionally been associated with poverty,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n According to Harry Mosquera, of the General Community Council of Los Riscales, which brings together the nine Afro-Colombian communities directly affected by the port, the project could be disastrous:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a detrimental project that seriously compromises our means of subsistence, such as fishing, the extraction of molluscs like the piangua<\/em><\/a> (ark clams) and community tourism associated with whale watching.\u201d<\/p>\n Since it\u2019s close to their collective territories, local communities must be consulted on the project, which has both detractors and defenders locally. So far, discussions have been \u201cmore external than with us,\u201d Mosquera says.<\/p>\n The quality of the habitat would decline considerably if their acoustic communication were blocked, affecting their behaviour and distribution<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In 2014, the Afro community declared<\/a> the entire coast of Nuqu\u00ed, including the proposed port area, as the regional integrated management district (or DRMI) of the Gulf of Tribug\u00e1\u2013Cabo Corrientes, which they now manage.<\/p>\n This status, designed for sensitive sites that already have some oversight, has allowed them to continue promoting local development that reconciles the environmental services provided by these ecosystems and their livelihoods.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only is Nuqu\u00ed\u2019s beauty on display, but also the community processes of organising the territory and developing alternative economies that allow it to maintain its relationship with the land,\u201d says Juli\u00e1n Idrobo, professor at the University of the Andes\u2019 Interdisciplinary Centre for Development Studies (Cider).<\/p>\n Conservation efforts are not restricted to Nuqu\u00ed. In the surrounding coastal corridor, there is now a whole mosaic of protected areas created by local communities, national and regional authorities, and some environmental NGOs. Many didn\u2019t exist a decade ago, which has complicated the port\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n Just north of Nuqu\u00ed is the Utr\u00eda National Park, 543 square km<\/a> of mangroves, coastline and ocean also populated by whales. In 2013, an exclusive 207km artisanal fishing area (Zepa) was established<\/a>. Wok and Takami, white fish found here, are sold to restaurants.<\/p>\n “Tribug\u00e1 was the laboratory where, based on community planning, the country\u2019s fishing standards were established,\u201d says economist Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s D\u00edaz, former director of the NGO MarViva. These were later implemented in Costa Rica and Panama and should be scaled up to different Colombian regions, he says.<\/p>\n South of Nuqu\u00ed, another DRMI, called Encanto de los Manglares del Bajo Baud\u00f3<\/em> (The Enchanted Lower Baud\u00f3 Mangroves), was established<\/a> two years ago. Now, the environment ministry aims<\/a> to declare the entire Tribug\u00e1 area a biosphere reserve under a UN classification that recognises territories in need of sustainable management.<\/p>\n Humpback whales visit many parts of the Pacific Ocean but have a special predilection for the Gulf of Tribug\u00e1.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a key habitat for mothers and their calves because it is well protected from adverse oceanographic conditions and predators such as killer whales and sharks,\u201d says Natalia Botero Acosta, a marine biologist.<\/p>\n According to Botero, Tribug\u00e1\u2019s deep waters, which are relatively close to its quiet shore, constitute a geographic exception within an exception and a haven for whales. Some, identified by their tails, spend periods of up to 15 days with their calves in this sala-cuna<\/em> (nursery).<\/p>\n The main concern over the deep-water port is noise pollution driving whales away. For several months, researchers have recorded the marine soundscape, using hydrophones submerged at 15 metres. Early indications suggest it is one of the most pristine places in Colombia\u2019s ocean.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cThe quality of the habitat would decline considerably if their acoustic communication were blocked, affecting their behaviour and distribution,\u201d says Botero, who coordinates the sound project<\/a> from the Macu\u00e1ticos Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have already seen that the engine of a boat like the ones we see today produces sounds that can block out their song. What will happen with a merchant ship?\u201d she asks, adding that collisions with boats and pollution are other major concerns.<\/p>\n Botero\u2019s team will also begin taking tissue samples from whales and studying a hormone called cortisol, which will allow them to determine their stress levels. They will then compare these with those from Buenaventura port\u2019s bay. <\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Tribug\u00e1](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190924-Colombia-map-English.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Tribug\u00e1](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tribuga\u0301-port-Archimedes.png\")
<\/p>\nTribug\u00e1 tourism<\/h2>\n
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\nWhale nursery<\/h2>\n
![\"Tribug\u00e1](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Ballena-jorobada.jpg\")
Chinese dream<\/h2>\n