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ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Public-Private Partnership Defends Biodiversity

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Jun 20 2007 (IPS) - The rich biodiversity of the Altos de Cantillana mountain chain two hours from the Chilean capital has received attention in the past two years through a unique and ambitious conservation model based on a public-private partnership.

The Altos de Cantillana chain, which forms part of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, has peaks over 2,000 metres high and belongs to the Cordillera de la Costa, whose deep valleys are home to some 180,000 people in five districts of the southwestern part of the Santiago Metropolitan Region: Alhué, Isla de Maipo, Melipilla, Paine and San Pedro.

The five municipalities’ combined territory of 205,000 hectares is home to numerous plant species and at least 163 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, 15 percent of which are only found in Chile.

Some 2,500 private individuals and large companies own property in the Altos de Cantillana. The main economic activities in the area are agriculture, mining, stockbreeding and the collection of firewood and humus (the nutrient-rich earth formed when plant material decays).

In 2004, the area was designated a top priority site in the government’s strategy for biodiversity conservation in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago.

“This land-locked area located in central Chile is of major international interest because of its great biodiversity. But it is feeling the heavy impact of human activities, and is considered a critical area,” United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant Diego Urrejola told IPS.

Urrejola is the coordinator of the Biodiversity Conservation in Altos de Cantillana Metropolitan Region project, that got underway two years ago and is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Chilean government, which is providing half of its budget of 2.1 million dollars.

The 2005-2009 programme is being implemented by the governmental National Environment Commission (CONAMA), with UNDP support. But one of its main actors is the public-private executive committee made up of the signatories of the 2005 agreement for the conservation of the Altos de Cantillana, which include 16 public agencies, five municipal governments and 13 private property and business owners.

The GEF-Cantillana project was born of the public and private sector interest in preserving the area while encouraging production.

The companies operating in the area include the Minera Florida mining firm (owned by Canadian mining giant Meridian Gold), the El Teniente division of Chile’s state-run copper company, the National Copper Corporation (CODELCO), the Chilean firm Agrosuper, one of the world’s largest pork producers, and a number of agribusiness companies.

In the conservation agreement, private owners in the area committed themselves to drawing up management plans for their respective properties and activities, helping to minimise the damages to biological diversity, and fomenting protection and conservation of the territory through sustainable economic activities. Private conservation areas will also be set up.

The main causes of the loss of biodiversity in the area are deforestation and illegal grazing, humus harvesting and illegal garbage dumps that pollute local water sources.

Urrejola especially criticised destructive practices in the countryside. “Mechanised agriculture has exercised heavy pressure on the hills. The vineyards and avocado plantations are climbing higher and higher because it is now possible to irrigate them farther up on the slope. Other concerns are tourism and uncontrolled recreational activities, which can cause pollution and fires,” he said.

“The main objective of the GEF-Cantillana project is the conservation of biodiversity in the area, but through a public-private model of co-management” of private land, which is new to Chile, he explained.

“What we are proposing is extremely innovative: to set up public-private institutional structures, a system with a formal legal identity and a budget, to support local development,” said Urrejola.

“Today we are working with 11 properties covering approximately 30 percent of the total area, and more will be joining soon,” he said.

The project’s lines of action have been drawn up over the last two years. The first is the preservation of the area, which will include the compilation of biological and social statistics along with the identification of formal and informal instruments available for the conservation of private areas.

The second is sustainable production. “In the executive committee, we are working with the large property owners. However, the sustainability of the project will be seen at the community level, the social level. That is why we are designing a programme to boost production among micro, small and medium farmers,” said Urrejola.

In the case of the small farming town of Alhué, population 4,500, which has a rich history but is lagging in terms of human development, one idea, for example, is to create associations of small and medium-size agricultural producers to help them gain market share based on sustainable production techniques.

The city government is also helping local property owners obtain licences to develop a tourism route in the Altos de Cantillana.

In third place, the action plan would “strengthen oversight and enforcement, to make the use of public funds more efficient, and to involve the private sector at some stage, whether in information flows or oversight,” said Urrejola.

The fourth line of action is education and training, and the fifth involves the establishment of land use regulating plans.

Urrejola said these lines of action will begin to be put into effect this year, and the system will be self-sustainable by 2009. However, the results will be seen in the long term, he added.

The UNDP consultant said that one of the most complex aspects of the project “has been to identify the real interests of the actors with whom we are working, and those with whom we are not working.”

“There are property owners whose sole interest is to preserve biodiversity, while others want to help the community, and others have multiple interests, ranging from stockbreeding to fomenting tourism. Knowing these interests, making them compatible and grouping them in a long-term, sustainable management system is not easy,” said Urrejola.

Another obstacle was reaching the community. “We have found that the municipal governments are very well-disposed, but have a low financial and technical capacity. City governments are key players in this project, and strengthening their administration is very important,” he said.

Aquiles Miranda, manager of integrated administration at the Minera Florida mining company, told IPS that “one of the contributions of the public-private partnership agreement was to establish zoning regulations” in the area, distinguishing between sections to be set aside for conservation, buffer zones and productive areas.

“All of Minera Florida’s installations and operations are in one productive zone,” said Miranda, who maintained that the agreement merely confirmed the company’s own concept of responsible mining. In 2004, the firm began to plant 17 hectares of Chilean palm trees and in the next three years, it hopes to plant 60,000 more trees.

The company actively participates in the project’s executive committee. “We believe it is an excellent forum for dialogue aimed at forging agreements and providing a legal framework for some of the activities carried out in the area,” said Miranda, who lamented, however, the slow pace at which the project is advancing.