The communes with on-going processes to establish intensive industrial salmon and trout farms are amongst the three most risk prone zones to social conflicts in Chile.
This was highlighted by the study on Net Social Value in Chile, undertaken by the Consultants Pullen & Dockendorff, commissioned by Chile’s Industrial Manufacturers Association SOFOFA.
The study area includes the Los Rios Region where salmon farms have been set up and the Chilean salmon industry capital of the Los Lagos Region. However, the study, made known by El Mercurio, does not provide any information on the Magellanes and Antartic Region, a zone where there has been an intensive expansion of the salmon industry, which will enable the export-oriented production in the region to be increased from 10,000 tonnes per year (2010) to 100,000 tonnes in 2016.
The year-and-a-half study mapped the relations between various projects and commercial installations with communities and neighbours, determining the degree of acceptance or rejection assigned by these. 335 entities (companies and proactive installations, state entities, NGOs, Associations and 43 economic sectors) were consulted. 16,750 citizens were consulted by phone.
It was concluded that the installations that generate the most rejections amongst the communities in the immediate vicinity are Coldeco Ventanas (due to polluting Arica), the power companies Colbún, Endesa and AES Gener, along with fish farms in Villarrica, Pucón, Araucanía and salmon farms in the Los Lagos Region.
In the highest risk category (higher than 50.1 points) are the fish farms in the Mapuche region with 62.4 points, whilst the salmon plants in Castro, Los Lagos Region, were given 59.6 points.
Salmon companies provide zero support for local communities.
One of the most striking findings of the study is that local communities don’t value companies in Chile. The Net Social Value the benefits provided to society by companies is only 1.6%. That means people see zero benefits coming from companies, consultants Pullen & Dockendorff informed the El Mercurio.
People questioned valued the benefits from companies in terms of products and services provided, but they rate very low the abuse, the lack of consideration and dialogue, the nuisance and the stress caused, the experts stressed.
Local communities are highly sensitive to the destruction of their scenic heritage
The researcher Marta Dockendorff informed El Mercurio that local communities are highly sensitive to aesthetic (scenic) pollution, to undermining the beauty of the countryside. Therefore in the Los Lagos region conflicts (with salmon farms) are breaking out, as these communities are highly sensitive to this particular industry. Therefore, the study on Net Social Value recommends that this problem is addressed at the sector, and not at the individual company level.
Salmon industry malpractice continues
Recent complaints make it clear that the customary sanitary malpractices continue as an integral part of the new geographic and territorial expansion of this industry that exports 98% of its production.
This is why the Environmental Authorities (Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente (SMA)) brought charges against the Acuinova and Salmones Pacific Star S.A salmon farms, due to a series of sanitary and environmental abuses in the fattening centres located in the Aysen and Los Lagos Regions, respectively.
The charges against Acuinova in Aysén and against Salmones Pacific Star S.A., in the Huildad and San Pedro C fattening centres are for not following the required procedures for transporting, cleaning and disinfecting nets in the fattening centres; nets that are placed on the seabed, seriously affecting these areas; dealing poorly with mortalities and not providing training to the employees involved in the different stages of this; and not informing the Maritime Authority about the effluent installations.
According to Centro Ecoceanos, the study of Lutten & Dockendorff only confirms what the people from local communities and civil society organizations have been saying all along. That the new phase os rapid expansion of intensive salmon monoculture in Chile is based on the same old logic and behaviour that brought about the mega sanitary crisis in the Los Lagos Region and in the archipelago of Chiloe between 2007 and 2009, which destroyed that the sanitary conditions of the coatsl region, generating the loss of 26,000 jobs and costing over US$5 bn.
Centro Ecoceanos, therefore, demands that there is total transparency in the way that affected communities can access information, and calls for a moratorium on the current process of expansion in the Bio Bio, Araucanía, Los Rios, Aysén and Magallanes regions.