327. Regarding the failure to consult the Punta Piedra II exploration project that
includes part of the Punta Piedra community’s territory, the State must halt any
activity that has not been previously consulted and, when applicable, proceed to carry
out this consultation pursuant to the Court’s case law. 340
328. The State must, within three months of notification of this judgment, set in
motion the necessary coordination mechanisms between the decision-making
institutions with competence in the matter, to ensure the effectiveness of the
measures established previously, including: freeing the territory of encumbrances,
guaranteeing the integrity of the communal territory and, if appropriate, participating
in the implementation of the said development plan.
C. Collective compensation through a development fund
329. The Commission asked the Court to order the State to make reparation, both
individually and collectively, for the consequences of the violation of the
aforementioned rights, as a result of the failure to free the community’s ancestral
territory of encumbrances and of the damage caused to the territory itself by the
actions of third parties. In addition, in its final written observations, the Commission
indicated that this obligation sought to compensate the harm suffered as a result of
the impossibility of the community enjoying peaceful possession of an important part
of its territory for more than 20 years.
330. The representatives requested reparation for consequential damages in
relation to the financial losses suffered by the community, as a collective, due to the
lack of access to and traditional usufruct of the natural resources. Additionally, they
requested a series of measures of reparations in order to: (a) improve productive
capacity; 341 (b) restore the forested area; 342 (c) improve the electricity service; 343 (d)
prevent natural disasters; 344 (e) build a recreation park with a lighting system, and (f)
Cf. Case of the Saramaka People, supra, para. 194.d) and Case of the Kichwa Indigenous People of
Sarayaku, supra, para. 299.
341
Namely: (i) to grow rice, 100 hectares with its respective plough, processor, pulping machine,
storage silos, warehouses and a truck for distribution to stores open to the Garifuna people; (ii) to grow
plantain, 100 hectares with packing plant for processing and preparing for stores and distribution; (iii) to
grow yucca, 200 hectares with a factory and packing plant for the preparation of cassava and to flavor, bag
up and use all the products derived from yucca; (iv) to grow tall Pacific coconut palm resistant to lethal
yellowing, 100 hectares with the corresponding processing plant for preparing desiccated coconut, bottling
the water and manufacturing coconut-based products, as well as coconut oil and its packaging, coconut
tablets and their packaging, and others; (v) to grow fruit trees and vegetables, 100 hectares with the
assistance of the community’s agronomists for all categories, together with the different manufacturing
plants; (vi) a pig raising project with its own infrastructure (sheds, slaughterhouse and cold room); (vii) a
project for raising laying hens with its own infrastructure (sheds); (viii) a project to raise and fatten chickens
for sale with its own infrastructure (sheds, slaughterhouse and cold storage room); (ix) a project to raise
tilapia with its corresponding infrastructure, for times of scarcity due to the closed season for artisanal
fishing; (x) a fishing project that includes four motorboats, four engines, nets and fishing gear, sonars,
radars, GPS, cold storage room and a vehicle for transportation and sales; (xi) US$500,000 seed capital for
the different businesses that will be operating in the area recovered by the Punta Piedra Garifuna
community.
342
Namely: (i) reforestation of 178 hectares with Ficus, Santa Maria, teak, Guanacaste, cojoba and
ceiba trees, and (ii) dredging of all river basins within the Rio Miel area and reforestation of the area from
the river basin to the mouth with bamboo.
343
Namely: A central power generation plant for the entire village with its infrastructure (posts, cables,
and connection to the houses in order to provide them with electricity).
344
Namely: (i) reforestation of the beach area with trees to create a protective barrier against bad
weather and climate change with different types of trees such as icaco, coccoloba uvifera, nance, cashew
340
92