Salmon industry discredited the Report of the United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment

His visit to the southern zone where the salmon industry operates, the UN rapporteur recommends establishing «a moratorium on the expansion of salmon aquaculture pending an independent scientific analysis of adverse environmental impacts».

Magallanes, Chile, March 28, 2024 (Ecoceanos News). The president of the Magallanes Salmon Producers Association flatly discredited the report of David Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, presented at the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The document states that the salmon industry is «one of the main threats to the environment facing Patagonia» and recommended that the State of Chile «establish a moratorium on the expansion of intensive industrial salmon farming pending an independent scientific analysis».

Carlos Odebret, president of the Magallanes Salmon Producers Association, told Salmonexpert that «this is a document that in 22 pages attempts to simplify years of public policy debate», where the reference to salmon farming «is reduced to two paragraphs of the report».

The United Nations Special Rapporteur made an official visit to Chile in May 2023, documenting on site the environmental impacts, human rights violations and the existence of so-called «sacrifice zones» caused by mining, forestry, energy, fishing, aquaculture and agro-industrial companies, among others.

Regarding the salmon farming mega-industry, Boyd said that «its production and marine footprint in Chile has increased dramatically. According to data from the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service, Chile has become the second largest producer of salmon in the world, with more than 1,200 concessions in the regions of Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes».

The report notes that over the past 30 years «Chile’s salmon farming industry has sustained an average growth rate of 117% per year, which has caused ecological damage to ecosystems often located in indigenous territories».

The UN rapporteur identified salmon farming as «one of the main threats to the environment facing Patagonia, especially the Kawésqar National Park, which is important for the conservation of diverse species and ecosystems, including 32 species of cetaceans».

Boyd also pointed out that «the salmon industry has contributed to the increase of industrial waste on the beaches, in the water and on the seabed». This, after observing salmon industry installations in the Reloncaví estuary, and reporting the recent installation of a new salmon farming center in Hualaihué, Los Lagos region, which endangers a nearby wetland.

In the chapter of findings and recommendations the United Nations rapporteur, David Boyd, points out that for Chile to achieve «its environmental goals, fulfill its human rights commitments, mitigate inequality and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals», it should significantly increase the budget of the Ministry of Environment.

And regarding his visit to the southern zone where the salmon industry operates, the UN rapporteur recommends establishing «a moratorium on the expansion of salmon aquaculture pending an independent scientific analysis of adverse environmental impacts».

Salmon businessmen join the anti-United Nations strategy in Chile

Facing the content and proposals of the United Nations report, Odebret, representing the transnational salmon companies that operate in Chilean Patagonia, ironized about the report, indicating that the national park that Boyd points out is on land, «so we assume that the rapporteur is referring to the Kawésqar National Reserve, an area of 2.6 million hectares and where salmon farming has concessions granted for 0.01% of the reserve’s area».

Regarding the recommendation to establish a moratorium on the expansion of the salmon industry, the president of the Association of Salmon Producers of Magallanes dismissed it in a sarcastic tone, stating that «the moratorium is in force, because for more than a decade no new concession applications have been allowed in the south of Chile. Therefore, the proposal to carry out a scientific analysis to lift this restriction (sic) is interesting».

Ecoceanos Centre: The salmon industry has been the only one that has had an intemperate reaction against the United Nations report.

In response to the position of the salmon industry, Juan Carlos Cardenas, director of the Ecoceanos Centre, pointed out that «the disqualifying denialism of the transnational salmon industry that operates in southern Chile, discrediting the report and the proposals of the UN Special Rapporteur, demonstrates to the international community that they are a de facto power that operates as a parallel state and colonial power in the territories of the Chilean Patagonia. It is striking that the salmon business is the only one to have an intemperate reaction against the UN report».

Citizen pressure for compliance with UN recommendations

Faced with the destructive environmental actions and the violation of the human rights of local communities and indigenous peoples of southern Chile, the Ecoceanos Centre, together with 100 citizen organizations, independent scientists, coastal communities and indigenous peoples, has demanded that the government of President Gabriel Boric implement the recommendation of the United Nations Rapporteur to establish a moratorium on the productive and territorial expansion of the salmon industry in southern Chile, associated with the presentation of a government plan to remove salmon farming centers from national parks and protected areas.

For the Ecocéanos Centre, the demands for a moratorium on salmon farming expansion and the removal of the industry from environmental protection areas are key from an environmental point of view, since «the operations of the industrial salmon farming centers within the National System of State Protected Areas (SNASPE) represent 30% of the total concessions irregularly granted to this mega industry in Chile, which are responsible for 60% of its production of around one million tons per year».