On Thursday, September 1st, the campaign period for the Plebiscite for the new Constitution of Chile officially ends. We are only days away from a pioneering democratic process in the world that is of vital importance to society. For this reason, and to close our informative campaign for approval, as a foundation we have decided to select the most relevant articles that involve environmental policies and glaciers in the constitutional proposal.
Here are the 10 glacial reasons to vote approve this Sunday, September 4th:
CHAPTER II FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND GUARANTEES
Article 39
The State guarantees environmental education that strengthens the preservation, conservation, and care required concerning the environment and nature, and that allows the formation of ecological awareness.
CHAPTER III NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
Article 129
The State must adopt actions to prevent, adapt, and mitigate risks, vulnerabilities, and effects caused by the climate and ecological crisis.
CHAPTER III NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL: Natural common goods
Article 134
Natural common goods are the territorial sea and its seabed; beaches; waters, glaciers, and wetlands; geothermal fields; air and atmosphere; high mountains, protected areas, and native forests; subsoil, and others declared by the Constitution and the law
Article 137
The State guarantees the protection of glaciers and the glacial environment, including frozen soils and their ecosystem functions.
CHAPTER III NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL: Water’s Statute
Article 140
Water is essential for life and the exercise of human and natural rights. The State must protect water and its hydrological cycle in all its states and phases.
Article 143
The State shall ensure a participatory and decentralized water governance system through integrated watershed management. The river basin shall be the minimum management unit.
CHAPTER III NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL: Mineral’s statute
Article 146
Glaciers, protected areas, areas established by law for reasons of hydrographic protection, and other areas declared by law are excluded from all mining activities.
CHAPTER III NATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL: Protection of nature
Article 148
An autonomous body, with legal personality and its assets, called the Protection of Nature, shall have as its function the promotion and protection of the rights of nature and environmental rights guaranteed in this Constitution, in international environmental treaties ratified and in force in Chile, against acts or omissions of the organs of the State Administration and private entities.
CHAPTER V GOOD GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC FUNCTION
Article 184
It is the duty of the State, within the scope of its financial competencies, to establish a permanent policy of sustainable development in harmony with nature.
CHAPTER IX JUSTICE SYSTEMS
Article 333
The environmental courts will hear and rule on the legality of administrative acts in environmental matters, the action for the protection of the rights of nature and environmental rights, the reparation for environmental damage, and other matters established by the Constitution and the law.
As a glacier team, we consider that voting in favor of the new Constitution is to approve the essential rights of nature and explicit protection for the glaciers of our territory, measures for which we have worked for years from Fundación Glaciares Chilenos as a group with other social organizations.
Two years ago, as an organization we joined the citizen demands that rose to demand profound changes in our country, on October 19, 2019, in the social outburst. A year later, these demands were translated into the historic possibility of writing a new Ecological Constitution that responds to the current needs of society, our territory, and the planet. This vote is a unique opportunity to restructure our society based on the needs that were never met. A national document updated to the new environmental contingencies and aligned to the efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“The actions and decisions we take today will build the future for nature, communities, and glaciers.”
~Fundación Glaciares Chilenos~.
Sources:
Highlighted image:
- Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Región de Magallanes, ©Alan Oyarzo.
