Undersecretariat for Fisheries Ministry of Economy CHILE Paula MORENO Silva Environmental Affairs Adviser Aquaculture Department

Undersecretariat for Fisheries The Undersecretariat for Fisheries is the superior regulatory official institution in charge of elaborating Chilean Fishery and Aquaculture Policies.

Undersecretariat for Fisheries General Objectives – To assure the preservation of living aquatic resources and environment of the country. – To promote the development of the local fishery and aquaculture sector.

Administrative Department Diffusion and Cooperation Department FisheriesDepartmentFisheriesDepartment Sectoral Analyses Department FisheriesCoordination Department DepartmentFisheriesCoordination AquacultureDepartmentAquacultureDepartment CabinetCabinet Fisheries Development DevelopmentDivisionFisheries Division Legal Division Fishing Management Division Ministry of Economy Undersecretariat for Fisheries Environmental Affairs Unit Environmental

CHILE Chile is located at the southwest of South America. North with Peru and Bolivia. South with the Antarctic Ocean. East with Argentina.

CHILE Chile has almost three types of weather: – Desert in the northern part of the country. – Mediterranean in the middle. – Template / cold template in the southern zone.

CHILE Although Chile has experimented a fast development in the last years, its economy depends on natural resources exploitation: – Fishing – Aquaculture – Agriculture – Forestry – Mining

Pollution problems in the coastal area and conflicts of interests in the northern coastal areas

Pollution problems in the coastal area and conflicts of interests in the middle and middle-south coastal areas

Pollution problems in the coastal area and conflicts of interests in the southern coastal areas

Environment and Aquaculture Over 80% of aquaculture activity take place in enclosed coastal seas, fjords, and channels in the south-austral zone of my country. This is due the geographical featuring, those marine ecosystems have a very high environmental value.

Environment and Aquaculture

Aquaculture, like any productive activity, may cause several impacts over the environment, such as: – Alteration in the distribution and abundance of local biota. – Biological diversity alteration, which may also result on nutrients or organic waste input, and the escape of culture organisms (competition).

Policies and organizations The Chilean environmental regulations have developed from the beginning of aquaculture, and the Undersecretariat has continuously been making requirements so that aquaculture development is environmentally sustainable in seas, lakes or rivers.

Policies and organizations It established that aquaculture activity should not be developed over natural grounds of fishing resources, and specially, that every aquaculture farm must be located within the so-called Aquaculture Appropriate Areas (AAA).

Policies and organizations In 1994, the General Law of Environment was published and it showed the importance acquired by the environment issues in the Chilean society.

Policies and organizations Later, in 1997, the Regulations for the Environmental Impact Evaluation System (SEIA) were put into force. These established that all aquaculture projects must be environmentally evaluated.

Policies and organizations In December 2001, the Environmental Regulations for the Aquaculture was published, which established a coherent complementary procedure with the Environmental Impact Evaluation System. These regulations established a limit to the negative interactions produced by aquaculture, which is defined by anaerobic conditions in sediments underneath culture cages.

Policies and organizations Since 1994, Chile has a National Policy for Coastal Use Zone. By means of this Decree, the National Commission of Coastal Zone Use was created. Its functions are to propose the President ideas for the encouragement of the Policy of Coastal Zone Use.

Policies and organizations Policies and organizations This Commission is constituted by: 1. The Ministry of Defense 2. The Undersecretariat for Navy 3. A representative from the Undersecretariat for Regional Development, belonging Ministry of Internal Affairs 4. A representative from Undersecretariat for Fisheries from Ministry of Economy 5. A representative from Ministry of Planning 6. A representative from Ministry of Public Works

Policies and organizations 7. A representative from Ministry of Urbanism 8. A representative from Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications 9. A representative from Ministry of National Property 10. A representative from Chilean Navy 11. A representative from National Tourism Service 12. A representative from National Commission for Environment Protection

Monitoring system The extension of my country makes it difficult and expensive to implement a monitoring system for marine ecosystem.

Monitoring system The next year the Environmental Affairs Unit from Aquaculture Department will perform a system of environmental information management, in order to make a decision and also for co- ordination among different public institutions.

My experience in environment management on enclosed coastal seas My experience consists mainly in evaluating environmental information, although this information is only partial due to the great difficulty existing to gather information for evaluation of the synergic effects in the environment.

My experience... In may 2001 on the ocassion of an oil spill at Moraleda Channel, Aysen region, south of Chile, I carried out an on site inspection to evaluate the damages caused by this environmental disaster.

My experience... My experience... I worked as an Adviser in a Project of Territorial Planning, in the south of Chile. In this project I was adviser in water pollution of Villarrica ’ s Lake, featuring the quality of water from the physical, chemical and microbiological point of view.

My experience... Today, I perform Environmental impact evaluation of new projects according to the National Environmental Law, and specifically the environmental regulations of the Undersecretariat for Fisheries.