Undersecretariat for Fisheries Ministry of Economy CHILE

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Undersecretariat for FisheriesMinistry of
EconomyCHILE

• Paula MORENO Silva
• Environmental Affairs Adviser
• Aquaculture Department
• -2002-

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Undersecretariat for Fisheries

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

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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.

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CHILE

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

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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.

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CHILE

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

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

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Environment and Aquaculture

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.  

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Policies and organizationsThis Commission is
constituted by

• The Ministry of Defense
• The Undersecretariat for Navy
• A representative from the Undersecretariat for
  Regional Development, belonging Ministry of
  Internal Affairs
• A representative from Undersecretariat for
  Fisheries from Ministry of Economy
• A representative from Ministry of Planning
• A representative from Ministry of Public Works
•  

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Policies and organizations

• A representative from Ministry of Urbanism
• A representative from Ministry of Transport and
  Telecommunications
• A representative from Ministry of National
  Property
• A representative from Chilean Navy
• A representative from National Tourism Service
• A representative from National Commission for
  Environment Protection

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Monitoring system

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

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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
  Villarricas Lake, featuring the quality of
  water from the physical, chemical and
  microbiological point of view.

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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.