By: Natalia Palma
(Read news in Diaria U de Chile)
In the midst of the conflict between the salmon industry and the indigenous communities and artisanal fishermen, the decision to be taken next Thursday by the Regional Commission for the Use of the Aysén Coastal Border (CRUBC) regarding the creation of Coastal Maritime Spaces for Native Peoples (ECMPO), within the framework of the Lafkenche Law, is generating expectation.
Representatives of the salmon farming industry have warned that the approval of these areas would lead to a reduction in production. On the other hand, indigenous communities and fishermen dismissed these criticisms and accused the industry of endangering the few marine resources available in the area.
In this context, Fundación Terram published a study that shows 14 salmon farming concessions pending expiration by the Undersecretariat for the Armed Forces (SSFFAA), for not complying with the requirement established by the General Law of Fisheries and Aquaculture to operate during the first year after the concession was granted, spending between eight to 20 years without carrying out activities. All this, in the perimeter of ECMPO requests in the Guaitecas and Huichas Islands.
In addition, the organization reported 10 sanctioning processes in progress at the Superintendence of the Environment for the overproduction of salmon against four companies that harvested more than 10,000 tons more than what was authorized in their Environmental Qualification Resolutions (RCA). These are the companies: Cultivo Yadrán, Blumar, Multi X and Australis Mar.
In a conversation with Radio y Diario Universidad de Chile, the researcher on salmon farming issues at the Terram Foundation and one of the authors of the report, Maximiliano Bazán, along with pointing to a disinformation campaign by the industry, remarked that the requests for maritime space do not imply an exclusive use of the territory.
Specifically, he explained that "we have seen how the salmon farming associations accuse that 45% of their activity would be affected by the approval of these ECMPOs, which is absolutely false, since the approval of this figure does not affect the concessions already granted, which in the Aysén Region alone are currently more than 700 and are equivalent to more than six thousand hectares of sea concessions, unlike the ECMPOs which is not a concession figure, but a collective administration figure on the coastal edge".
"Salmon farming claims for alleged loss of rights over their concessions, when a large number of these have never operated, have never produced anything. Especially within the requested polygon, we identified 14 concessions that, after eight to 20 years have passed, have never produced anything, have never generated a job. So, we should ask ourselves what is the reason for the claim", he questioned.
In this sense, he denounced that "if one looks beyond even the polygon that is requested within these two ECMPOs, it is a situation that is replicated in the rest of the regions and, in the case of the Guaitecas, it has the particularity that it also overlaps with a protected area, such as the Guaitecas National Reserve, which is already widely contaminated because it is precisely one of the areas where the salmon industry has developed its activity the most".
Precisely because of this background, Bazán also confirmed that the organization filed a complaint with the Comptroller General of the Republic in September 2022 "to carry out an audit of these omissions, because in the end we are talking about a national asset, such as the sea, which is finally concessioned and mortgaged by these companies mainly to foreign banks".
Regarding the responsibility of the Undersecretariat for the Armed Forces in processing the expiration of the concessions, the researcher was emphatic in pointing out that "we must bear in mind that all the salmon concessions, we are talking about more than 1,300, all those that were granted before April 8, 2010 have the character of a perpetual concession and the only reason for which the holders can lose the concession is not complying with the requirements established by law".
"Precisely one of them is not to initiate activities during the first year of operation and we have in this case, as well as dozens outside this particular polygon, where the holders let four, eight or 20 years go by and never carried out operations. Then, what is the real utility for these companies to have access to concessions of a national asset, such as a portion of the sea, which can be five, 50, 100 hectares? What we end up seeing is that they have more of a use of being an instrument of a financial asset, which the companies end up using for expansion plans, to request credits to banks, but they do not have a productive purpose, which is supposed to be the reason for which they were granted at the time", he said.
For the same reason, he criticized that the government entity "has accumulated a large amount of paperwork, in which it seems that the permits seem to be operating in favor of the salmon industry, since all these concessions that should have been expired have not been, and the effect in some cases is that they start operating when they should have been expired. So, a kind of 'sanitation' of the concession is generated when we know that legally this is not possible. It is a very worrying situation, since, in short, we have public bodies that do not enforce the law".
Finally, Bazán also referred to the questions raised by the salmon industry about the technical and scientific transfer funds that the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) receives from the Universidad Austral for the development of management plans in the Kawésqar National Reserve in the Magallanes Region. According to El Mostrador, this situation is the result of an alleged "corporate capture" of the institution's autonomy in the management of public responsibilities.
"The truth is that I do not have more information on this. What I can say is that, in relation to the management plans, which are the responsibility of CONAF in their elaboration until the transfer to the new service is made, after the SBAP Law (Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service) comes into force, is that the absence of these has played throughout history rather in favor of the granting of salmon farming concessions".
For example, in the Guaitecas or Kawésqar National Reserve, the possible definition in a management plan that establishes that salmon farming is not compatible with conservation activities due to its level of impacts should prevent the granting of concessions within these protected areas, which has not been the case precisely because of the absence of these plans," he said.