Chilean Plans to Dam Pristine Rivers Environmentally Irresponsible
ForestEthics demands that Matte and Angelini withdraw from HidroAysen Project
Santiago, Chile – ForestEthics today publicly announced its opposition to the Matte Group’s and Angelini Group’s participation in the HidroAysen Project that plans to build three dams on the Pascua River and two dams on the Baker River in Chilean Patagonia.
“Damming pristine Chilean rivers and cutting Chilean native forests for transmission of electricity is environmentally irresponsible,” said Aaron Sanger, Chile Program Director at ForestEthics. “We insist that the Matte Group and the Angelini Group withdraw from the HidroAysen Project if they want to continue working with ForestEthics and its Chilean allies.”
In 2002 and 2003, ForestEthics led one of the most contentious environmental campaigns ever waged in Chile, a campaign which targeted Matte Group and Angelini Group forestry products and included demonstrations across the U.S., a full-page ad in The New York Times and multiple front-page stories in Chile’s national papers. To end this campaign, the Matte Group joined the Angelini Group and U.S. company Home Depot in written commitments to protect Chilean native forests. Over the past three years, ForestEthics and its Chilean allies have worked with these companies to monitor and improve their forest protection commitments.
But Colbun, owned by the Matte Group, now owns 49% of HidroAysen, and the Angelini Group also owns at least 10% of Colbun. The participation of Matte and Angelini in the dams planned by HidroAysen would harm Patagonian communities by creating artificial lakes on the Aysen region’s best ranching and agricultural lands. The Baker River region includes many of these farms and ranches. The dams on the Pascua River would destroy large areas of temperate rainforest, along with current and future ecosystem services from these forests. Damming the Pascua River would also jeopardize vast freshwater reserves that are the Chilean nation’s best defense against global warming. Both the Pascua and Baker regions are important to the survival of the critically endangered huemul deer, a Chilean national symbol.
The temperate rainforests of Chile are biologically related to forests as far north as Alaska and as far south as Tierra del Fuego. Temperate rainforests are extremely rare globally, covering less than 0.2 % of Earth's land mass. Environmental groups led by ForestEthics, scientists, and First Nations have joined together in a World Temperate Rainforest Network committed to the protection of these ancient, endangered forests.
