E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.1 page 14 50. In the field of health, infant mortality is estimated at 110 per thousand, or four times the national average. High rates of mortality and morbidity have been linked to malnutrition in the areas inhabited by indigenous populations. B. Contradictions in legislation and regulations and the difficulties of dialogue 51. The contradictions in legislation and regulations are attributable both to the State's desire to assign land to the Amerindian and Afro-Colombian communities and recognize the territorial autonomy of the Amerindian communities, and to its desire to preserve control over the resources of the soil and subsoil and water resources. Moreover, physical planning policies clash with the interests of these communities. 52. In this respect the Special Rapporteur notes that laws and regulations on mining operations and environmental protection conflict with the recognized territorial rights of the Amerindian and Afro-Colombian populations as described above. Thus, by declaring the ancestral lands of the members of the Afro-Colombian communities, in particular those in the Pacific region, “uncultivated land” ( terrenos baldíos ), Act No. 99 of 22 December 1993, which established the Ministry of the Environment and relates to environmental management and conservation, and Act No. 160 of 1994 on agrarian reform hinder recognition of their ownership of this land. Similarly, the creation of national parks and reserved forests in zones that are to be assigned to these populations seems likely to restrict their actual access to the land. Of the 42 national parks, 15 coincide with zones set aside for the resguardos . 18 The Ministry of the Environment, acting through the autonomous regional corporations (corporaciones regionales autónomas), the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and INCORA have issued mining, forestry or agricultural permits to private national or international enterprises or to individuals without discussing with or actually involving the local populations, even though this is required by a number of acts and regulations. This policy jeopardizes the environment and allows entrepreneurs to appropriate the resources (gold, oil, timber, etc.) which could be used to improve the populations' living conditions. C. Exploitation of natural resources, development projects, and threats to the existence of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities 53. The long-neglected strip of territory along Colombia's Pacific seaboard has become the object of domestic and outside ambitions. The zone known as the Chocó Biopacífico is an almost untouched ecosystem which is very rich in biodiversity and whose species are coveted by profit-seeking international firms. 19 The Afro-Colombian and Amerindian communities, whose way of life and respect for the environment are responsible for the areas's preservation, are gradually being dispossessed of these valuable natural resources. The region's subsoil, with its rich gold reserves, is undergoing intensive mining which, because of the use of mercury, is polluting watercourses and destroying 20 the aquatic flora that provide these communities with food. Intensive forestry is depleting the soil and exposing it to erosion. On account of the growing importance of the Pacific in the world economy, powerful national and