Three of the four national parks and adjacent areas where industrial aquaculture activities exist will be free of salmon farming. This, thanks to the agreement with two of the three companies that have activities in those areas.
A public-private agreement to advance decisively in the release of aquaculture concessions of the national parks and adjacent areas, signed on Tuesday December 19th government officials and representatives of AquaChile and Cooke Aquaculture.
Read more » Government and salmon farming companies sign agreement to protect and conserve national parks
After an intense intersectoral work, the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, Nicolás Grau; your environment pair, Maisa Rojas; the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces, Galo Eidelstein; the Undersecretary for Fisheries and Aquaculture, July Salas; and the general managers of AquaChile, Sady Delgadoand of Cooke Aquaculture Chile, Andrés Parodi, signed a commitment that "will prioritize the relocation of the nine aquaculture concessions operating in or near national parks Magdalena Island, Laguna San Rafael and Bernardo O'Higgins".
The text, which was signed in Faculty of Law of the University of Valparaiso, in the region of Valparaíso, "relocations shall not imply the entry of such concessions into other categories of protected areas".
In addition, the commitment stresses that "the various State bodies shall be coordinated to respect the acquired rights and the development of the activity within the existing ruleswhile the relocation of the concessions is being carried out."
This will also work on "a road map that considers this and other specific issues in order to make further progress on the development and sustainable growth of industry."
With this understanding, three of the four national parks and adjacent areas, in which industrial aquaculture still exists, will be free of salmon farming thanks to the commitment of two of the three companies who carry out their activities there.
The first two aquaculture concessions to be relocated outside national parks belong to Cooke Aquaculture and are the breeding centres "Explorators" and "Huillines 1", which was already approved by the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces (SS.FF.AA.).
The Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, Nicolás Grau, appreciated the signing of this commitment, saying that it allows us, in three of the four national parks, "to define a clear path for salmon farming can move to other areas that are not protected areas".
In addition, he stressed that "this allows us to advance in the fulfillment of one of the Most relevant commitments of the President of the Republic in this area and which gives an account of a way forward, a path of dialogue, of public-private linkagesto allow us, on the one hand, to continue to strengthen a very relevant economic sector, which is the sector of salmon farming and aquaculture in general, and, on the other hand, to protect the environment and thus find a balanced and sustainable development of this industry."
For the Minister of the Environment, Maisa Rojas, "this agreement protocol is a demonstration that we can sit at the same table to work together and that we can achieve agreement on common objectives. As a country, we need industry take decisive steps towards sustainability".
While the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces, Galo Eidelstein, stated that "the signing of agreements between the public and private sectors enable more robust and dialogueal communities to be consolidated in our coastal areas. This creates the right conditions for security and defence in our country. The Ministry of National Defence will continue to be available to advance this type of initiative," he said.
*Photos: courtesy of Prensa Presidencia de Chile.
