By Carolina Morgado
(Read the news on Radio U de Chile)
In November 2023, a group of parliamentarians, together with the Salmon Council and SalmonChile, went to the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic to request a pronouncement on the legality of Official Communication No. 234053 of the Undersecretary of the Environment, issued as a result of the entry into force of Law No. 21,600, which creates the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP) and the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP).
The Oficio, dated September 22, 2023, instructs the suspension of the granting, relocation and/or modification of concessions in Protected Areas that do not have a Management Plan and also requires that these industrial activities be compatible with the objectives of protection and have a favorable report from the SBAP, in accordance with the provisions of Article 92 of the SBAP Law.
The salmon industry's reasons for requesting a pronouncement from the comptroller had to do with its questioning of the powers of the Undersecretariat of the Environment in these matters, as well as demanding that the CGR issue a pronouncement on the aforementioned Oficio and the application of the SBAP Law with respect to relocation requests submitted prior to its entry into force.
In response, the Comptroller's Office ratified the official letter, stating that "the granting of future concessions in protected areas, including both applications that are submitted and those that are pending, must be subject to the new regulations, which require a management plan and a prior report from the SBAP".
It should be noted that a management plan is an environmental management instrument designed to ensure the conservation of ecosystems and contain threats. It is based on this instrument that the competent services must analyze the compatibility of salmon farming concessions within protected areas.
Therefore, only after management plans are in place will the authorities be able to decide on the concession applications currently being processed in Patagonia, in the Las Guaitecas (Aysén) and Kawésqar (Magallanes) national reserves. National Parks are excluded from any concession requirements, as they are a strict conservation category.
The Comptroller's ruling thus constitutes a step forward in establishing limits on industrial production in favor of the conservation of our national parks and reserves.