From Resistance to Creation: Socio-Environmental Activism in Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones”

Valenzuela-Fuentes, Katia; Alarcón-Barrueto, Esteban; Salinas, Robinson Torres

doi:10.3390/su13063481

Cited by 27 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The concepts of sacrifice zone and environmental injustice are not assimilated in the Chilean law, as these allude to the act of violating the right to live in a pollution‐free environment, which is declared by the current Constitution (Hervé, 2015). Nevertheless, notions of both terms have been increasingly used in the public discourse in Chile over the last decade (Valenzuela‐Fuentes et al., 2021; Valenzuela‐Perez, 2016). Sacrifice zones in Chile usually refer to territories where power plants and other hazardous industrial activities occur, leading to acute and chronic environmental and health impacts on districts in that residential and industrial zoning areas are immediately adjacent or even mixed (Castan‐Broto & Sanzana‐Calvet, 2020).…”

Section: Physiography Of Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sacrifice zones in Chile usually refer to territories where power plants and other hazardous industrial activities occur, leading to acute and chronic environmental and health impacts on districts in that residential and industrial zoning areas are immediately adjacent or even mixed (Castan‐Broto & Sanzana‐Calvet, 2020). The concept of environmental injustice is embraced to demand a safe, clean and healthy environment by grassroots (Valenzuela‐Fuentes et al., 2021). Even though the National Institute for Human Rights identifies more than 100 socio‐environmental conflicts in Chile (https://mapaconflictos.indh.cl/), only five territories are currently recognized in the public discourse as sacrifice zones with the Puchuncaví valley being an iconic case (32°S, Figure 1).…”

Section: Physiography Of Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Cross‐Cutting Approach for Relating Anthropocene, Environmental Injustice and Sacrifice Zones

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Anthropocene is an uneven phenomenon. Accelerated shifts in the functioning of the Earth System are mainly driven by the production and consumption of wealthy economies. Social, environmental and health costs of such industrialization, however, bear on low‐income communities inhabiting severely degraded territories by polluting activities (i.e., sacrifice zones). How global, national and local socio‐economic and governance processes have interacted in perpetuating socio‐environmental inequalities in these territories has been rarely explored. Here, we develop an historical quantitative approach integrating a novel chemostratigraphic record, data on policy making, and socio‐economic trends to evaluate the feedback relationship between environmental injustice and Anthropocene in sacrifice zones. We specifically outline a case study for the Puchuncaví valley ‐one of the most emblematic sacrifice zones from Chile‐. We verify an ever‐growing burden of heavy metals and metalloids over the past five decades paced by the staggering expansion of local industrial activities, which has ultimately been spurred by national and transnational market forces. Local poverty levels have declined concomitantly, but this path toward social equality is marginal as costs of pollution have grown through time. Indeed, national and international pollution control actions appear insufficient in mitigating the cumulative impact brought by highly toxic elements. Thus, our sub‐decadal reconstruction for pollution trends over the past 136 years from a sediment record, emerges as a science‐based tool for informing the discussion on Anthropocene governance. Furthermore, it helps to advance in the assessment of environmental inequality in societal models that prioritize economic growth to the detriment of socio‐environmental security.

show abstract

Section: Physiography Of Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Physiography Of Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

A Cross‐Cutting Approach for Relating Anthropocene, Environmental Injustice and Sacrifice Zones

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Without the influence of sustainable development goals, EIAs can only be of limited utility for achieving sustainability. One example of this is the limited capacity of EIA in urban planning in the coastal areas of Chile [13], where the proliferation of industries perpetuates the concentration of pollution in "sacrifice zones" [14].…”

Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social participation in the SEIA is "proactive;" the public can raise objections to the proposed enterprises, but it is not allowed to determine the viability, size or location of the projects. Consequently, environmental conflicts have persisted in heavily polluted coastal cities such as Quintero-Puchuncaví, Coronel Bay and the Hualpén-Talcahuano Bay [14].…”

Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delayed and Approved: A Quantitative Study of Conflicts and the Environmental Impact Assessments of Energy Projects in Chile 2012–2017

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System—SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile’s La Araucanía region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.

show abstract

“…However, the vulnerability approach to risk has not much percolated down to the population, in particular, because vulnerability has a negative connotation, unlike a term such as resilience, which has a positive, proactive connotation (Quenault, 2015). When situations of vulnerability become too unbearable, other terms are used by people, associations and researchers, such as 'sacrifice zone' (Lerner, 2010;Shade, 2015), which has re-emerged in Chile in recent years in response to the concentration of polluting industries in some sectors of the country (Programa de Reducción de Riesgos y Desastres, 2020; Valenzuela-Fuentes et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water vulnerabilities mapping: a multi-criteria and multi-scale assessment in central Chile

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the major challenges that populations have to face is vulnerability to water: lack of water, flooding, pollution, hazard sensitivity and coping capacity. For the reason of economic, social and environmental inequalities, this paper focuses on water-related vulnerabilities in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago (RMS) in Chile. Our main objective is to understand, through mapping, the multiscalar logics of water vulnerability. This study is carried out at two scales: at the regional level (RMS), we proceed with open access municipal statistical data and maps, while at the local level, a more detailed analysis focussing on the Chacabuco Province is based on the same type of data but with either a higher spatial resolution (Census districts) or a spatially more intensive data processing in order to take into account intra-municipal differences. In this way, we put into perspective the discourse developed in the Chilean media and by the inhabitants of Chacabuco Province regarding the province as an environmental ‘sacrifice zone’ for the RMS. The vulnerability maps are carried out at different scales in a simple and reproducible way by multi-criteria evaluation (MCE). The results confirm the hypothesis of a sacrifice zone and show that high-resolution data and adequate data processing give, on average, lower vulnerability scores than using only statistical data on the municipal level. The results provide a cartographic decision support for stakeholders. Limitations of the study are discussed and required further research pointed out.

show abstract

From Resistance to Creation: Socio-Environmental Activism in Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones”

Cited by 27 publications

References 55 publications

A Cross‐Cutting Approach for Relating Anthropocene, Environmental Injustice and Sacrifice Zones

A Cross‐Cutting Approach for Relating Anthropocene, Environmental Injustice and Sacrifice Zones

Delayed and Approved: A Quantitative Study of Conflicts and the Environmental Impact Assessments of Energy Projects in Chile 2012–2017

Water vulnerabilities mapping: a multi-criteria and multi-scale assessment in central Chile

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About