Chilean indigenous group's bid for control of marine space rejected

A bid by a small Chilean indigenous community to win administrative control of more than 24,000 hectares of marine space that includes some salmon farm sites has failed, reports Fish Farming Expert's Chilean sister site, Salmonexpert.cl.

The Regional Commission for the Use of the Coastal Border (CRUBC) voted 35-1 against the application by the As Wal Lajep Indigenous Community for a Maritime Space for Indigenous Peoples (ECMPO) in Muñoz Gamero Peninsula in the Magallanes region.

Initially, the application covered around 320,000 hectares and after several processes over the course of seven years it was reduced to 24,345 hectares, generating concern in various industries including salmon farming.

Impacting development

In his presentation to the CRUBC, the president of the Magallanes Salmon Farmers Association, Carlos Odebret, argued that the ECMPO would adversely impact regional development. He pointed out that Chile’s undersecretariat of fisheries, Subpesca, had said the ECMPO would make aquaculture concession projects in progress unviable, restricting the growth of the aquaculture sector, a key activity for the area.

State organisation Conadi, which facilitates ECMPO implementation, also “failed to assess other indigenous communities that may have customary rights in the area, as required by law,” thereby violating legal requirements, said Odebret.

He added that there was a lack of on-site visits to the proposed ECMPO.

Economic drivers

The Seremi (regional ministerial secretary) of Economy, Marlene España, stated that the Government recognised sustainable aquaculture and fishing as the main activities of the region, responsible for more than 55% of the total exports from Magallanes, and that the ECMPO would affect them by, for example, overlapping with salmon farming concessions.

The Governor of Magallanes, Jorge Flies, said that the ECMPO overlapped both the Kawésqar National Reserve and Areas Suitable for Aquaculture, which at the same time as having current fish farms, have requests for more sites.

It was also noted that the ECMPO application lacked specificity regarding the activities that will be carried out there; it is unbalanced since it is very extensive and few request it; and it compromises the supervision of the Maritime Authority.