Green light for mining project raises red flags for Chile penguin reserve

[Judi Lynn]

by Michelle Carrere on 8 November 2021 | Translated by Sydney Sims

• A mining and port project that could threaten penguins and other marine species has been approved near Chile’s Humboldt Archipelago.
  
• The approval has sparked widespread criticism from the scientific community, civil society, government officials and politicians, who say it ignores conservation science and prioritizes business interests.
  
• Politicians and conservationists from civil society organizations say they will go to court to try to stop the project.

The approval of a mining and port project in Chile has generated a wave of outrage in the country. The Dominga project was rejected in 2017 due to its potential risks to biodiversity. However, in August 2021, the Environmental Assessment Commission for the Coquimbo region, the area where the project would be developed, voted to approve it with 11 votes in favor and only one against.

Scientists, politicians, government officials, conservationists and citizens are now demanding that the Dominga project be stopped. Hundreds of people in Chile have taken to the streets to protest.

The Chilean Society of Marine Sciences has asked the authorities to “stop the project and decide once and for all not to carry it out under any current or future circumstances.”

Officials from the Ministry of Environment and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service published statements criticizing the commission’s decision, as did the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), the public institution responsible for managing Chile’s protected wild areas. “We have never expressed our support for this project because the information presented does not allow us to ensure its environmental sustainability,” CONAF said in its statement.

. . .



The world’s largest colony of Humboldt penguins is found in Humboldt Penguin National Reserve.
Image by Steve Silverman via Flickr.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/green-light-for-mining-project-raises-red-flags-for-chile-penguin-reserve/

[abqtommy]

1. I had to do a map search to satisfy my curiosity. No, I didn't want Humboldt

County, California. Ah, there it is, on the West (and only) Coast of Chile. Here's an
interesting site I also came up with that is searchable in various categories:

http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/humboldt-penguin-spheniscus-humboldti/details

Thanks, Judi. Let's do all we can to protect these birds.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Amazing website! Have never seen anything remotely like it. Thank you for sharing it. 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

We await the necessary great awakening if this planet's beloved, and intelligent species have any chance at all.