Glacier in the Yendegaia Fjord. Photo: Ricardo Giesecke/ IDEAL CenterBy Patricio Segura
It was impossible for the VII Congress of the Chilean Cryosphere Society, held between October 8 and 10 in Coyhaique, not to highlight the need for Chile to have a Glacier Protection Law. With national and international guests, the meeting was a space to discuss the planet's main sources of fresh water and climate regulation: ice and glaciers. This was done through lectures, posters, coordinated round tables, and presentations of articles and journals.
It was in this context that the renowned Chilean glaciologist, Gino Casassa, referred to the country's debt to glacier protection. When asked if he considered that Chile needed a specific law, he explained that although progress had been made in protecting glaciers through environmental legislation, more robust steps were needed in this area.
He recalled that they have only been incorporated into Law No. 19,300 on General Environmental Principles and the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA) Regulations for a little over a decade, and many of them, at least in the south and Patagonia, are located within national parks.
However, special regulations are still needed. “I am in complete agreement with a specific law on glaciers, which could well reinforce the SEIA, but there is always the concern that the approval of environmental qualification resolutions could be politicized,” he said during his presentation “State of Antarctic Ice: A Message to the Planet.”
In his view, a Glacier Protection Law would improve our performance in this area, given that six different bills have been introduced over the past two decades without any of them being approved. This is something that would not change with this administration, of which he said, “I don't see the will... not the will, but the time, to approve a bill from a scientific point of view.”
The vice president of the Chilean Glaciers Foundation, Constanza Espinosa, also a speaker at the conference, was critical of the fact that despite multiple bills—and after more than two decades—none have seen the light of day. “Today it is frozen in the Senate Committee on the Environment and National Assets... and the reason is that there is a lot of pressure and lobbying from the mining industry,” she said during her talk "Bici-Tando Glacier Territorities" at the Villacleta store.
Gino Casassa at the Chilean Cryosphere Society Conference.She explained that "glaciers outside protected areas have no degree of protection. And most of the protected glaciers are in this southern zone, in Aysén and Magallanes. But all the glaciers in the north and center of our country have, for the most part, no degree of protection, leaving them at the mercy of mining projects that have affected and destroyed them. Therefore, it is not in the mining industry's interest for there to be a Glacier Protection Law.“
As an example, she mentioned Anglo American's Los Bronces mine, adjacent to glaciers in the Metropolitan Region, which would not have happened with specific legislation. That is why a specific law “is necessary, urgent, and we will continue to push for that to happen,” she concluded.
The VII Congress of the Chilean Cryosphere Society was organized in conjunction with the Aysén regional government, the Patagonian Ecosystem Research Center (CIEP), the University of Aysén, and the regional offices of the National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) and the National Water Agency (DGA).
The current legislative status
Currently, one of the bills addressing glacier protection is the one presented by Congressman Daniel Melo (Socialist Party). Although initially it only referred to the prohibition of establishing water rights on glaciers (which is why it is being processed as a reform of the Water Code), it has moved toward aspects that involve greater protection after passing through the Lower House, where articles relating to broader protection were added. Since 2022, it has been in its second constitutional stage in the Senate Committee on the Environment and National Property, which has analyzed it in some of its sessions this year.
Another bill was introduced in 2018, but its processing has been stalled since mid-2023 in the Senate Finance Committee, in its first constitutional stage.
The protection of glaciers was one of the commitments made by President Gabriel Boric, as part of his self-proclamation as Chile's first “environmentalist government.” However, none of these bills has been given priority by the executive branch to speed up their processing.
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