In the middle of a strong rejection by the indigenous communities, civil organizations and the local authority, the multinational Marine Harvest attempt to expand their production centres of smolt in the Ranco lake, one of the three biggest in Chile and a main tourist destination in Los Ríos region, in the south of Chile. The Norwegian company is taking advantage of a series of loopholes in the law, of which one of them is to subdivide the application in a series of partial applications and reports. This with the purpose to prevent that it would perceive that cumulative impact it would make together in the already contaminated water of the lake.
After the big crisis of the ISA virus which affected the cultivating industry of salmon in 2007-2009, Marine Harvest is now returning back to normal to the legal situation of their cultivating centres in this area of lakes, in the way of expanding their intensive production of smolt. In April 2012 entered two environmental impact statements (EIS), which consider the installations of two big installations of floating cages and one plant of silage (for processing the dead fishes). Both projects deteriorate the landscape value as well as the touristy values in this area declared as zone of national tourist interest.
A situation that demonstrate the bad faith that exist in the transnational salmon enterprise, is the complaint of the regional administration that the two EISs presented by Marine Harvest, to modificate the projects of the salmon cultivating centres of Ranco I and Ranco II, are based on the same technical record and the same geographical location as before. It is requested that Marine Harvest clarifies if the record belongs to the same cultivation centre, or if they are independent projects.
The authorities of the communes Futrono, La Unión and Lago Ranco, the Private Council of Ranco Lake Basin and tourist organizations, enterprises, communities and indigenous people, have established a coalition for the defence of their territory and natural resources, denouncing that the project of Marine Harvest has been subdivided irregularly to introduce them as individual environmental impact statements, instead of introduce them, aggregated, as a single project, which would mean only one environmental impact assessment (EIA), which obligates the participation of the citizens and of different stakeholders affected.
The local indigenous communities claims that this intention of Marine Harvest are directly intervening the different projects of local development and activities they are realizing, violating Convention No.169 by the International Labor Organization (ILO) which is law of the republic which establishes that this type of initiatives have to be consulted previously and in an obligatory manner regarding the affected native people.
United in the defence of the territory
The social organizations, authorities of the communes, indigenous communities and tourist entrepreneurs unites in the defence of the Ranco lake, warns that the experiences from intensive salmon cultivating centres have shown that they are incompatible with the development of touristic activities. The ecological tourism, of small scale and free from extern agents and pollutants, is the highest value in this territory. And its inhabitants are not prepared to lose it they points out.
The communal authorities of the Ranco lake denounce that Marine Harvests expansion project to put the health of the population at risk because of the quantity and the quality of the effluents and residues, which contaminate the ground, the water and the air. Additionally the alteration of the lifestyles and the habits of groups of residents, the destruction of places of anthropological, archaeological and historical interest, in general, various landmarks of cultural heritage to this lake basin.
In an interview with Ecoceanos News, Santiago Rosas, the mayor of the commune Lago Ranco, ensured that the aquatic concession in Ranco lake was given to Marine Harvest in the beginning of the nineties, in spite of the rejection from the community, which (in those days) organized itself and mobilised against the project.
According to the mayor Rosas, the project was possible thanks to a negotiation between the authorities of that period and the transnational Norwegian company. Marine Harvest promised to realize studies regarding the condition of the water in the Ranco lake before the operations and in every year they are running in operation, and the results should be reported to the municipality and to the community. This never occurred. Marine Harvest did not fulfil their promises ( ) Marine Harvest has a long history of incompletion of agreements of the environmental regulations. Among others, it increases its production of salmons without permission and realizes cleaning of its nets with chemicals in the same lake.
The lakes of Chile, property of the multinational salmon enterprises?
The mayor Rosas informed that the large social mobilization that occurred in the beginning of the nineties, rejecting the operation of the salmon enterprises in the lake of Ranco, can recur. The community has the right to protest, which it has already done in Freirina, Aysén and in Punta Arenas.
María Angélica Astudillo, mayor of the town in La Unión, a commune bordering/neighbouring to Ranco, joined the opinions of her colleagues of Futrono and Lago Ranco, manifesting her deep rejection of the project of Marine Harvest. This situation means a degradation of the environment, and it will affect the water, the biodiversity and the tourism in the area ( ). We have our lake Ranco which gives us a valuable panorama of the whole area – of Puerto Nuevo and San Pedro. Therefore we want to save our water. I know that it is something very difficult to achieve, because it means fighting against such a powerful business as Marine Harvest, the mayor Astudillo pointed out, the one who realized a call to the community to unite in the matter to protect the third largest lake of Chile.
The regional government question the projects of Marine Harvest
The intendant of the Los Ríos region, Juan Andrés Varas, denounced that in the environmental impact statement (EIS) presented by Marine Harvest exists inconsistency regarding the amounts of maximal production they are authorized to in the cultivating centre, of a productive cycle of 12 months. The intendant Varas indicated that the multinational Norwegian disclose two different amounts, 66 000 kilos of biomass annually authorized in the original technical project and 120 000 kilos of biomass in the EIS of the project.
For its part, Marine Harvest mark that the centre does not up to today possess the technical project approved, and that it in the project of regulation presented exists a reduction of the production of 60 % in relation to the production applied for.
The principal regional authority confirm in a report that it does not exist any legal support that justifies that the centre can increase its production nine times more (600 000 kilos requested). This is not in line with the maximum amount of the historic production they gave in the EIS (1 471 978 kilos in 2008), which means an increase twenty-two times the biomass authorized in the original technical project (of 66 000 kilos).
The intendant Varas denounced that the proportioned information clearly contradicts the amounts of production they refer to presented in the EIS of Marine Harvests, the maximum amounts of production authorized, and to the historical maximum amount that the centre has registered.
Marine Harvest in Chile : Overproduction again
The regional administration of Los Ríos requested on the behalf of Marine Harvest to clarify the amounts by presenting a comparative chart, where they indicate: The maximal annual allowed production, the historical production and what they project in the Ranco lake.
The regional authority additionally demand the transnational Norwegian to inform about the possible impacts that the increase of the production, of almost nine times of the authorized, would have on the aquatic biota in the area of influence of the project, and the manner of how they protect the conservation of the hydrobiological resources.
In addition, the intendant Juan Andrés Varas demanded Marine Harvest to present the evidents that accredits the legal regulation of the transfer of the property of the salmon enterprise EICOSAN Ltda. into Marine Harvest Chile. This due to the fact that the authorization and original project of the cultivation of smolt in the Ranco lake was authorized to the enterprise EICOSAN Ltda., and not to Marine Harvest.
The organized opposition against Marine Harvests project increase and now it is demanded implementation of a civil consulting in the territory. This would mark a milestone at the imposition of polluting industrial projects.
DIRECCIÓN DE ECOCEANOS