The new Chilean government led by President José Antonio Kast, who took office on 11 March, has already reversed course on several actions and strategies taken by his predecessor, Gabriel Boric, regarding environmental controls, the fishing sector, and the salmon-farming industry.
One of the first moves Kast made upon assuming the presidency included steps to withdraw environmental measures that had been introduced by the previous government, including the formation of large marine parks approved just before Boric left office.
On 10 March, Chile’s now former Environment Minister Maisa Rojas led the creation of two marine parks that would place over half of the country’s oceanic waters under some type of environmental protection. The move, which was set to situate Chile as fourth in the world with the highest percentage of its exclusive economic zone under a state of conservation, sought to protect highly endemic ocean species considered vulnerable to climate change.
“I could not have imagined a more symbolic closure for an environmental administration that I am hours away from ending,” Rojas said upon approving the marine parks, touting the defense of “the biodiversity that embodies this gift for the country and for the future.”
Shortly after assuming office, Kast withdrew 43 environmental decrees that had been implemented under Boric, including the Mar de Juan Fernández and Nazca Desventuradas II parks.
José Ignacio Vial, the country’s new undersecretary of the environment, said that the withdrawal of the decrees was to ensure the government “responds to standing technical and regulatory standards.”
“Our resolve is for each administrative act coming from the Ministry of the Environment to comply with the highest standards of legal quality, safeguard the welfare of people, and effectively protect the country's natural heritage,” he stated in a letter to the comptroller’s office.
Kast provided economic rationale for the move.
“We want to generate the best possible public policy around full employment, always respecting the environment,” he said.
Besides the marine parks, the list of withdrawn decrees is extensive, including the removal of pronouncements on protection standards for water resources, adaptation to climate change, emissions standards and decontamination, biological conservation, protection of endangered species, and establishment of conservation areas and national parks.
The moves align with Kast’s “anti-permitting” measures in which he seeks to free up a number of projects in various industries that were trapped in bureaucratic red tape under Boric.
In a similar light, Vial confirmed his ministry will withdraw the draft of the new General Fisheries Law – penned under the Boric administration – and submit it for review, prioritizing reforms that better align with existing regulations.
Chile’s Senate approved a new fishing quota bill in June last year to replace the nation’s existing fishing law, enacted in 2013 and originally set to last until 2032. The legislation, which had yet to get approval in the lower house before Boric left office, sought to right what many considered were illegitimate origins of the existing law by reducing quotas allocated to industrial fishing firms and increasing artisanal quotas for species such as anchovies, Spanish sardines, horse mackerel, and common hake.
While the law was still being crafted, industrial fishing company Landes filed legal action against the Chilean government for “covert expropriation,” with quotas supposedly guaranteed until 2032 now reduced by seven years. Fellow firms Blumar, Camanchaca, Alimar, and FoodCorps followed suit.
Though recent moves align with fishing industry interests, the moves have also elicited condemnation.
Calling the existing law “the greatest shame in Chilean politics,” Congressman Jorge Brito, who is also the former president of the Congressional Fisheries Committee, said. “They’re taking away the future by withdrawing the draft of the new fisheries law. We will confront the government and urge them not to make artisanal fishing, on which more than 100,000 people depend throughout Chile, disappear.”
Nevertheless, moving forward, Kast’s government has indicated it will resort to technical and participatory bodies – such as scientific committees – to support future regulatory decisions in a process that will not include sponsoring a new law.
The current government has also begun to distance itself from Boric’s administration as it relates to salmon farming.
While Boric significantly stepped up environmental oversight, Kast has sought to forge a closer working relationship with aquaculture firms.
“It is in no one's interest to invest if salmon farming will stop,” he said. “Stopping everything, as some are requesting, does not protect the environment.”
He also committed to collaborating with the sector in order to allow for the relocation of concessions to improve production – a plan that has been discussed for years but has had trouble getting off the ground.
In the past, Kast has also been critical of the controversial Lafkenche Law, which was originally introduced to consider the territorial rights of Indigenous people in Chile and their ancestral use of marine resources. He has said the law has been incorrectly used to hold up salmon-farming development.
“What started with a legitimate purpose has been distorted to the point of becoming a tool of political blackmail,” Kast said.
