Once again, the law about protecting glaciers that the Chilean state has been falling to comply is presenting problems. This time the government, through the Minister of Environment Marcela Cubillos, decided to withdraw the project dating from 2014, which was intended to protect these ice solids.
The minister referred to this, holding that “The way to protect glaciers is through the promotion of the project that creates a system of protected areas, we do not believe that there should be specific protection for wetlands or glaciers”. These statements go hand in hand with the executive’s intention, which is to push forward a general regulation in the project that creates the Sistema de Áreas Protegidas [System of Protected Areas], which is currently being processed in the Senate, and which only has 3 specific mentions for glaciers.
While civil society has generally taken a dim view of the current legal loophole and episodes such as Pascua Lama; in the mining sector, the news was received as something positive, generating statements such as that of Joaquín Villarino, executive president of the Mining Council, who indicated that “the hidden objective of the measure was to prevent the development of mining, instead of protecting glaciers”. To this sector, there must be a balance between environmental protection and economic activities, without considering the damage it may cause, since they indicate that “a glacier in itself does not constitute a protected area”, implying that they should not be affected by protection regulations.
From the Glaciares Chilenos team, we believe that the protection of glaciers, as they are already in a critical state due to climate change and are a natural resource, should have strict and specific regulations. They should not be subject to general regulations neither leave them out of these regulations as proposed by the government. The state must guarantee their protection and avoid any type of intervention either in the glaciers themselves or in the surrounding ecosystems.
Sources:
La Tercera: Gobierno decidió retirar el proyecto de glaciares del trámite legislativo [Chilean neswaper]
El Mostrador: Mineras celebran retiro de proyecto de ley de glaciares de Bachelet [Chilean neswaper]
Cover photo: Glaciar Juncal Norte, by Marcos Cole.
