Chile’s government struck an agreement with two salmon-farming firms to relocate their concessions outside of national parks, but according to environmental NGO Fundación Terram, the two firms should have some of those concessions wholly revoked for exceeding allotted production capacity for years.
AquaChile and Cooke Aquaculture signed an agreement with the Chilean government in December 2023 to relocate a total of nine aquaculture concessions, effectively relocating their operations from three national parks – Isla Magdalena, Laguna San Rafael, and Bernardo O’Higgins.
Chile Minister of Economy, Development, and Tourism Nicolás Grau said that the agreement would help to define a clear path for salmon farming to move to other, non-protected areas.
“This allows us to advance in the fulfillment of one of the most relevant commitments of the President of the Republic in this matter that calls for a path to follow – a path of dialogue and of public-private articulation – which, on one hand, allows us to continue strengthening a very relevant economic sector … and on the other hand to protect the environment and, thus, define a balanced and sustainable development of this industry,” he said at the time.
“This agreement is a demonstration that we can sit at the same table to work together and agree on common objectives. As a country, we need the industry to take decisive steps toward sustainability,” Chile Environment Minister Maisa Rojas added.
Grau and Rojas were two signees of the agreement, along with the CEOs of AquaChile and Cooke Aquaculture Chile and the undersecretaries for the armed forces and for fisheries and aquaculture. The signed commitment stated that “the different state entities will coordinate to respect the acquired rights and development of the activity within the current regulations, while the relocation of the concessions is carried out.”
Separately, in May 2024, Fundación Terram announced in an investigative report that nine Chilean salmon-farming firms had racked up 95 cases of overproduction in the country’s natural reserves from 2012 to 2023, harvesting more than 67,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon above their authorized limits. At the time of the report’s release, none of the cases mentioned had been sanctioned by Chile’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA).
Following the report, the SMA initiated a sanctioning procedure against Blumar in May for alleged overproduction at one of its grow-out centers in the Kawésqar National Reserve. After that case, the SMA also filed charges against salmon-farming firm Multi X for overproduction at its Cholga production center, located in the Las Guaitecas National Reserve in the southern Aysén region of the country.
In an opinion piece published on Chilean investigative journalism site Ciper, Fundación Terram member Maximiliano Bazán said AquaChile and Cooke simply relocating concessions is not enough punishment for overproduction.
Bazán questioned whether government authorities had actually looked into the situation of the nine concessions before signing the 2023 agreement, maintaining that five of those concessions had expired and the other four should have their concessions revoked due to repeated violations of environmental laws.
“It is evident that none of the three ministries – economy, environment, and defense – that signed such an agreement stopped to review the legal background of these concessions since, if they had consulted [Chile’s Environmental Assessment Service] before taking the official photo [with the other signees], they would have learned that, for several years, four of the nine farming centers that seek to relocate have been evading environmental institutions, obtaining millions in economic benefits at the expense of the deterioration of the seabed of two national parks,” he said.
Against this backdrop, “the relocations announced by the government could end up legalizing projects that have been operating illegally for years,” he added.
In the case of the four centers, production limits were …
