Chile's Environmental Assessments: Contested Knowledge in an Emerging Democracy

Abstract

In 2010 Chilean legislators replaced a small environmental coordinating agency with an Environment Ministry, an autonomous Environmental Impact Assessment Agency, an enforcement agency, and specialized tribunals. Though ambitious, the reform failed to meet the stated objective of depoliticizing environmental decision-making. Instead, the reforms strengthened the authority of the central state, justified on the premise that decisions would now be based on 'technical criteria', meaning rules rather than politics. Comparing the creation (1990-1994) and reform (2009-2010) of Chile's environmental institutions, it is demonstrated that a defining feature of Chilean political culture involves treating rules as if these were independent of the state. Chilean lawmakers use rules as science is used elsewhere: as an 'objective' voice separate from politics, that helps legitimate decisions. Appeals to the rules were used to increase the central state's authority and exclude local representatives, concerned communities, and scientists from environmental decision-making.

<b>Engaging the Underground: An STS Field in Formation</b>

“…The rapid expansion of hydraulic fracturing activity close to US communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Colorado prompted scholars to track the environmental and social risks and harms, along with forms of community and political organization to mitigate them (Kroepsch 2016;Perry 2012;Espig and de Rijke 2016;Willow et al 2014;Eaton and Kinchy 2016;Partridge et al 2017;Smith 2017a, 2017b). Citizen science and other forms of public engagement 7 Other recent STS contributions to making sense of the underground have addressed topics ranging from the interpretation of remote data sources in petroleum reservoir geology to decision making about geothermal energy to conspiracy stories about the definition of geological boundaries around protected sites, among other subjects with public relevance (Almklov 2008;Almklov and Hepsø 2011;Raman 2013;Gilbert 2015;Rahder 2015;Barandiaran 2015;Gross 2015;Pijpers 2016;Bleicher and Gross 2016;Sareen 2016;Oskarsson 2017). in science have been key features of these controversies, as activists and concerned communities aim to fill the gaps in "undone science" (Kinchy 2017;Kinchy, Parks, and Jalbert 2016;Malone et al 2015;Jalbert and Kinchy 2016;Wylie et al 2016;Vera 2016;Zilliox and Smith 2018).…”

Nitrogen, science, and environmental change: the politics of the Green Revolution in Chile and the global nitrogen challenge

“…As result of these reforms, universities, research institutions like INIA, and policymaking agencies had no formal communication channels for the transference of knowledge or technology (Venezian 1993). This process of institutional dis-assemblage also affected work on other environmental issues (Barandiaran 2015;Carruthers 2001;Tecklin et al 2011).…”

Failure of Energy Mega-Projects in Chile: A Critical Review from Sustainability Perspectives

“…The objective in those cases is not to evaluate the projects, but instead justify them to obtain the EIA approval. Thus, for example, the accountability between the consultant results and possible environmental damages was considered weak in the HydroAysén project [22]. Furthermore, in Chile, consultants used to have important political connections.…”

“…By early 1990s with the return to democracy, many internal factors-including an accumulation of severe environmental problems and the emergence of environmental NGOs-put enough pressure on the government to undertake environmental reforms. However, according to many scholars, a policy window for stronger environmental standards and regulations in Chile was not open until these internal factors were linked with foreign pressures [22,23], including the country's accession to the OECD in 2010. Environmental protection policies were first implemented in 1994, when the Environment Law (No.…”

“…The failure of these projects has illustrated that they were not framed within long-term analysis of Chile's energy needs and sustainable energy and environmental management strategies. There exists a generalized perception, and some evidence to back it up, that environmental evaluations in Chile have been dominated by economic and political interests, operating more as an instrument of several interest groups influence and rent seeking than as an effective tool to prevent environmental damage from investment projects [22,[29][30][31], for example, argued that many of the problems arising from mega-projects are mostly the result of significant deficiencies in the policy-making related to its limited environmental and sustainability perspectives.…”