Environmental issues in Venezuela

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Environmental issues in Venezuela include oil spills, illegal mining, deforestation, tourism, water shortages, pollution, poor waste management^[1] and hazards such as earthquakes, floods, rockslides, mudslides, and periodic droughts.

Venezuela ranks among the world's most ecologically diverse countries.^[2] However, it has suffered great environmental degradation.^[2] It has the third-highest deforestation rate in South America^[2] The Guri Dam, one of the world's largest, flooded a massive forested area and is now being filled with silt deposited by runoff from deforested areas.^[2] Environmental issues include sewage pollution into Valencia Lake, oil and urban pollution of Maracaibo Lake, deforestation, soil degradation, and urban and industrial pollution, especially along the Caribbean coast.^[2] Current concerns also include irresponsible mining operations that endanger the rain-forest ecosystem and indigenous peoples.^[2] Successive governments have attempted to develop environmental regulations. However, only 35 to 40 percent of Venezuela's land is regulated thus far, 29 percent as part of national parks.^[2]

Venezuela has ratified 14 international conventions regarding environmental protection and sustainable development, while also taking forward-looking steps internally to protect and preserve the country's natural wealth. Venezuela has 43 national parks and 36 natural monuments, and is the country in Latin America with the largest proportion of protected lands, with over 55 percent of its total territory. (Parks and monuments are only 17 percent of that total; the remaining protected areas are outside those parks and monuments.) The nation was ranked second in South America and ninth in the world on the Happy Planet Index of 2012, with a score of 56.9.^{[3][obsolete source]} The UN analysis estimates in 2019 that 25% of Venezuelans need some form of humanitarian assistance. Venezuela led the world in murder rates, with 81.4 per 100,000 people killed in 2018, making it the third most violent country in the world.^[4]

There was oil production in Venezuela as early as 1878. Water quality deteriorated drastically starting from around 2000 with the beginning of oil activities offshore, which greatly increased the amount of both organic and inorganic pollutants. One of such activities is the release of drilling gravel containing high levels of metals or minerals, e.g., barite, cadmium, and mercury. Other examples of polluting activities are the dredging of sediments and the testing and laying of pipes.^[5]