Ecoceanos Centre demands that the Chilean government implement the moratorium on the expansion of the salmon industry recommended by the UN Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment

•    The UN Special Rapporteur’s report «corroborates the allegations and supports the socio-environmental struggle carried out by citizen organizations, local communities and indigenous peoples against the destructive productive and territorial expansion of the salmon industry.

•    It is now necessary to «demand that Gabriel Boric’s ‘environmentalist government’ implement the recommendations of the UN Rapporteur’s report.

Santiago, Chile, March 13, 2024. (Ecoceanos News). The United Nations Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David Boyd, published (08.03.2024), his report on his visit to Chile in May 2023 in which he addresses the impacts of mining, forestry, salmon farming and the use of fresh water in the South American country. On issues related to the salmon industry, it recommended that Chile «establish a moratorium on the expansion of intensive industrial salmon farming pending an independent scientific analysis».

This report was presented during the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, which is taking place between February 26 and April 2024.
Boyd, who is an adjunct professor of law, policy and sustainability at the University of British Columbia, warned that Chile has generated several «sacrifice zones» where «economic profits and private interests are prioritized over the environment, health and human rights».

Listening to the complaints and proposals of citizens and coastal communities

The UN Rapporteur held meetings with more than one hundred citizen organizations, local communities and representatives of indigenous peoples who are affected by flagrant and prolonged violations of their right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

The Special Rapporteur held meetings in Santiago, and also in the chemical, oil and energy industry «sacrifice zones» of Concón, Quintero and Puchuncaví in the central region. He also visited the copper and lithium mining areas in Calama and San Pedro de Atacama / Salar de Atacama. He also traveled to the southern region, where he met with Mapuche communities in Puerto Montt and visited the salmon farming facilities in the Relocanví estuary.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, which is the largest body of independent and voluntary experts in the United Nations system for Human Rights, which allows the existence of independent mechanisms of investigation and monitoring established by the Council to address specific situations in countries, or thematic issues at the global level.

Human Rights and the Environment under growing threat

Chile acceded to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in December 2022 and committed to adopting a human rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation and restoration, as well as protecting at least 30% of all terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems by 2030.

Currently, 21% of Chile’s land area has been set aside as national parks and other protected areas, while 42% of the marine territory is under various protection statuses. However, most of these protected areas lack management plans and have limited human and financial resources to carry out conservation actions, while at the same time an orthodox neoliberal extractivist export model is being implemented that threatens the integrity of these areas.

Report of the Special Rapporteur recognizes environmental advances in Chile
Boyd’s report considers the recent creation of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAPs in spanish), which established a national, integrated system of marine and terrestrial protected areas, an important step. It also notes that «Chile has strict new climate change legislation and should be commended for its leadership in closing coal-fired power plants, generating solar electricity and protecting much of its marine space.

However, the Ecoceanos Centre recalled that «the salmon companies, through an aggressive communications and political lobbying campaign, succeeded in getting parliament to reject a key article of the SBAPs Law that prohibited the destructive operations of industrial salmon production centers and the cultivation of exotic marine carnivorous species within National Parks and protected areas of the State.

The salmon industry: One of the main threats to human rights, marine biodiversity and the environment in Chile.

The mega-industry of farmed salmonid production and exports has exponentially increased its production by 3619% in the period 1990-2022, positioning Chile as the second largest producer in the world with 36% of the global supply. This has had serious cumulative impacts on the environment, aquatic biodiversity, and the rights of workers, coastal communities and indigenous peoples.

«Salmon farming is one of the main threats to the environment facing Patagonia, especially the Kawésqar National Park, which is important for the conservation of diverse species and ecosystems, including 32 species of cetaceans,» the UN rapporteur’s report states. It adds that «the salmon industry has contributed to the increase of industrial waste on beaches, in the water and on the seabed».

The report points out that many of the environmental and human rights violations have persisted for decades, leaving the affected citizens and communities helpless.
Monoculture industrial salmon farming expansion moratorium and independent scientific analysis

In the conclusions and recommendations section, the report of the UN rapporteur on human rights and the environment states that in order for Chile to achieve «its environmental goals, fulfill its human rights commitments, mitigate inequality and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,» the State should significantly increase the budget of the Ministry of the Environment, eliminate sacrifice zones, strengthen air quality standards, reverse water privatization, continue to accelerate renewable energy generation, transition to a circular economy,» along with establishing «a moratorium on the expansion of salmon aquaculture pending an independent scientific analysis of adverse environmental impacts.»

Ecoceanos Centre urges the Chilean government to take on board the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur

The citizens’ organization Ecocéanos Centre, whose executive director, veterinarian Juan Carlos Cárdenas, met twice with David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur during his visit to Chile, pointed out that the report «corroborates the warnings and supports the struggle of more than four decades carried out by citizens’ organizations, local communities and native peoples against the productive and territorial expansion of the transnational salmon mega-industry».

The Ecocéanos Centre demands that the so-called «environmentalist government» of Gabriel Boric enforce the recommendations of the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, implementing a moratorium on the destructive expansion of industrial salmon monocultures until independent scientific analysis of their adverse environmental impacts is available».

The citizens’ organization indicated that in order to advance in the protection of the environment and human rights in Chile «transparent governmental action under control and informed participation of citizens, socio-environmental movements and pressure from international consumers are key, since more than 80% of salmon production is destined for export».-