'That's the problem with that lake; it changes sides': mapping extraction and ecological exhaustion in the Atacama

Abstract

Multiple dynamics produce the ecological present. For the past 30 years or more, in the southern Atacama salt pan (Salar) in northern Chile, extractive industries have been accumulating minerals and water in exhaustive quantities, taking ever more than may be regenerated. However, the exhaustion of the Salar de Atacama involves a more complex set of symptoms than demonstrable environmental depletion. Fragmented scientific knowledge of the salt pan due to the privatization of water and under-regulation of mining provides a partial explanation for this complexity. In this article, we discuss these political conditions of environmental knowledge and, using a range of methodologies, we show that the scale of resource extraction threatens social and environmental harm and exhaustion may manifest in unexpected ways. We used remote sensing data to elaborate maps that reflect environmental change (1985-2017), relative to the intensification of extractive activity for copper and lithium salts in the area. Using these data, we undertook ethnographic and participatory mapping work to discuss with people from the Peine Indigenous community how they have experienced ecological change related to mineral and water extraction in the southern Salar. A review of the historical and archaeological material helps us to show the depth of Indigenous people's relationships to and knowledge of the salt pan and surrounds, and how social memory may be ecological. Combining the different results of our research, we argue that ecological exhaustion emerges from social, environmental and political conditions driven by both tangible and uncertain impacts of industrial extraction. Revealing these conditions of exhaustion raises key questions about the complexity of the effects of extraction.Keywords: Indigenous peoples; Salar de Atacama; participatory mapping; mining; water rights

Systematic Review of GIS and Remote Sensing Applications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Mining

“…It is encouraging that all studies in this category attempted to conform with the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) concept by engaging with stakeholders as part of their data collection, including ‘Vulnerable’ groups such as elderly, women and children ( n = 4) and the ‘Indigenous Community’ ( n = 5) (Figure 7 and Figure A 4). The potential of multidisciplinary and integrated approaches was highlighted by these studies, with authors stressing the critical role of stakeholder engagement in validating and complementing mapped environmental observations and impact assessment outputs via inimitable endemic local knowledge (Babidge et al, 2019; Lechner et al, 2019). Stakeholder engagement promotes bottom-up approaches, which are frequently more effective at locating and resolving issues impacting affected communities, and improves understanding of the root causes while preserving the relationship between mining and host communities.…”

“…The integration of social science approaches and stakeholder engagement is key to discerning intangible impacts and providing a meaningful context to quantitative spatial evidence (Babidge et al, 2019). The 25 studies that used social science methods, include examples from all eight framework categories (Figures 6 and 7).…”

Distinct Hydrologic Pathways Regulate Perennial Surface Water Dynamics in a Hyperarid Basin

“…Surface water in these environments is a focal point of ecosystem diversity for microbial organisms (Farias et al., 2017) and habitat for the Andean flamingo (Frau et al., 2021; Hurlbert & Keith, 1979; Marconi et al., 2022). Anthropogenic extraction has raised questions about the resilience of such ecosystem‐critical surface water in the context of multiple hydrologic perturbations (Babidge et al., 2019). Thus, understanding the hydrologic controls on the spatial prevalence and temporal variability of surface waters is critical for future predictions of ecosystem resilience.…”

Negotiated Agreements, Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industry in the Salar de Atacama, Chile: When Is an Agreement More than a Contract?

“…Atacameño communities have a history of receiving limited economic benefits from extractive industry activity in these territories prior to Indigenous recognition (Babidge et al., 2019; Núñez, 2002). In the context of the Atacameño peoples’ extensive knowledge of water's activity in the Salar de Atacama area (Gonzáles et al., 2014; Kalazich, 2015; Molina, 2017; Núñez, 2011), the once small scale of the lithium plant under SCL, now expanded under ownership of Rockwood/Albemarle, was considered to result in lesser environmental and social effects relative to SQM or the copper miners.…”

“…In early 2019, Sally Babidge, who has maintained long‐term ethnographic relationships with communities in the Salar de Atacama, was approached personally by a member of the CPA who requested that she assist in undertaking a planned evaluation of the CPA–Rockwood agreement. A Chile‐based research organization, SMI‐ICE Chile, tendered successfully for a formal evaluation of the agreement commissioned by Rockwood's parent company Albemarle (ALB) and the CPA.…”