Challenges for the sustainable exploitation of emeralds in Colombia

Abstract

This article makes a detailed review about the challenges for a sustainable exploitation of emeralds in Colombia, identifying the socioeconomic and environmental effects caused by two events that have marked the development of this economic activity along the history, which are, the emerald boom, where major situations of violence were evident and the transformation process that this economic activity is currently going through, caused by the end of the conflict and the arrival of foreign companies to the emerald industry, with the objective of identifying and describing the challenges faced by this economic activity and proposing some strategies developed at a national and international level aimed at reducing, reusing and recycling waste and the recovery of environmentally affected areas in search of the sustainability of the sector.