We work on communication, citizen participation and advocacy actions to warn about the impacts of salmon farming activities in areas of high ecological value and great ecosystemic fragility, such as marine protected areas. The actions promoted are inspired by the lessons learned from the expansion of the industry in Chile.
The rapid expansion of the salmon industry in Patagonia has caused significant environmental problems that call into question its sustainability.
In Chile, this activity has increased its production by nearly 3,500% in the last three decades, occupying the fjords of Chilean Patagonia sequentially, starting in the north, in the Los Lagos Region, then moving to the Aysén Region and finally to the Magallanes Region.
However, evidence indicates that poor salmon farming practices cause detrimental effects that result in social conflicts between different users of the marine environment, negative impacts on biodiversity and disruption of important ecosystem services (water quality, sediment quality, other commercially important species and marine resources, among others). The cultivation centers have also been located in areas of high ecological value and great ecosystem fragility.
In 2018, in answer to the industry’s plans to expand into the Beagle Channel, the organizations grouped in the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence expressed their categorical rejection of the installation of salmonid farming centers – which groups introduced species of salmon and trout – because of the catastrophic and irreversible damage it would cause on the ecological, economic, cultural and aesthetic values of one of the most outstanding sectors of the Patagonian marine ecosystem. The Forum responded to the call of the citizens, and through its organizations offered the technical and conservation arguments that support the unanimous position: that salmon farming should not be permitted in the Beagle Channel.
In June 2021, a law was passed in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands of Argentina, which prohibits “the cultivation and production of salmonids in jurisdictional waters of the province” with the aim of “ensuring the protection, preservation and safeguarding of natural resources, genetic resources and lake and marine ecosystems”. A citizen triumph in which the Forum, through its organizations, played a key role in alerting about the dangers of salmon farming. However, there is still much to be done.
We prepared a position paper on salmon farming and protected areas in Chile and presented our position in national and international events in Chile (Meeting of Protected Areas and Portal Communities) and Canada (IMPAC 5), 2023.
We participated in workshops, discussions, interviews, in which the organizations of the Forum were able to present technical and testimonial arguments for the need to stop the expansion of the industry in Tierra del Fuego.
