GAT and other companies mine as close as 33 feet from the caves. A study funded by the U.N. Development Program in 1995 recommended mining be prohibited within 660 feet of the park border, which also protects a million-strong bat population. The government's newly created Ministry of the Environment is studying measures to better protect the caves. Meanwhile, the explosions and debris from the mining have blocked entrances, tumbled down cave walls and damaged the drawings inside. They were painted on with charcoal mixed with animal fat, probably from manatees, archeologists say, and have been protected by the natural humidity in the caves, which reach down to 1,000 feet below sea level.
Environmental activists have big expectations for the caves.
Architects have drawn plans for an environmental education center with walkways to make it easier for visitors to see the drawings. The plans even include sanitation projects for the surrounding community. Inside the caves, Tainos drew birds crouching with their wings folded tightly in front of small tunnels and birds in flight before the openings of huge caverns. There are pictures of people catching birds in their hands as they fly by. A Spanish priest who arrived shortly after Columbus wrote that there were so many birds that the natives caught them this way.