Identity and territory under siege: The Kawésqar fight

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Photo: Daniel CasadoPhoto: Daniel Casado
 
The ancient territory of the Kawésqar under siege by the salmon farming industry.
 
By Camila Diaz
 
Tucked away among remote fjords and canals on the southern Chilean Patagonia coast, the Kawesqar people have faced many threats throughout their tragic history. A nomadic canoe culture, this Indigenous people, which has 32 ways of saying “here,” did not succumb to their cold, windy and isolated environment, rather they have been decimated by their contacts with civilization.
 
Gradually, their population has declined to just a few hundred. Still, their culture, language, and many of their traditions survive.
 
In recent decades, a new foe has appeared in their ancestral territory: the salmon farming industry.
 
According to Chile's Undersecretary of Fisheries, in the Magallanes region there are currently 134 active salmon farming concessions and 83 pending approvals. Of this total, 67 approved concessions and 55 pending concessions are located inside the Kawesqar National Reserve. Moreover, government data show that 49% of the salmon farms in the reserve have experienced anaerobic conditions (declining oxygen in the water) below the salmon pens – which also significantly affects marine life throughout the reserve.
 
 
Foto: Alex MuñozFoto: Alex Muñoz
 
 
The salmon farming industry, however, claims that their industry is compatible with protected areas. “This is a problem that is limited territorially, salmon farming occupies less than 0.08% of the reserve,” says Carlos Odebret, president of the Magallanes Salmon Farmers Association.
 
Meantime, some local indigenous leaders respond that their internationally recognized human rights are being violated. “It is the duty of the State to safeguard due process through its institutions, in accordance with the principle of good faith, which is not happening properly since we find ourselves in the midst of industrial interventionism and political and personal interests that we completely do not recognize,” says in part a recent declaration entitled “Kawesqar Waes Ka Chams Yenak K'enak Os Town!” (The Kawesqar are present in the territory and in the sea).
 
“We want to protect the sea and the land in an ecoregion that has so many important at tributes, like contributing to the planet's climate regulation, possessing efficient ecosystems that capture more carbon than the Amazon, and containing the world's third largest freshwater reserve, being a refuge for endemic species, sheltering the world's largest marine mammals and being home to an abundance of species important for feeding people,” said Claudio Carocca, a marine biologist and environmental activist in Puerto Natales, Chile.
 
 
 

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