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Massive Hydroelectric Project
Threatens Patagonia’s
Rivers and Forests

By Paula Palmer

In the Aysen region of Chilean Patagonia, the people still drink pure water out of rivers that tumble from glaciers through pristine temperate rainforests and spill into scenic fjords. A plethora of mini-climates and ecosystems give Chile’s forests the highest biological diversity among the world’s temperate rainforests. Endemism (species that exist nowhere else on the planet) is also high. The huemul, an endemic deer that appears with the condor on the Chilean national shield, still survives in the Patagonian wilderness, though in most of Chile it is remembered only as a legend.

Settled by fishermen, ranchers and farmers only during the last century, the Aysen region’s human population barely breaks 100,000. The long road south from Santiago stops abruptly, and wilderness stretches into the vast distance:  spectacular mountains, ice fields, wild rivers and fjords. A coalition of local organizations has declared the Aysen region a “Reserve of Life,” and pledged to pursue development that is “just, sustainable and equitable.” 

Their pledge is now being challenged by a different sort of coalition – a consortium of national and transnational corporations that wants to build at least 5 dams on Patagonia’s pristine Baker and Pascua rivers. Their proposal is to deliver electricity from the dams to Santiago – 1,500 miles away – by building one of the world’s longest power lines.

The HidroAysen plan calls for clearing a 120-yard-wide swath of forest between the Aysen dams and Santiago, and erecting over 5,000 200-foot towers to support the power lines. The lines would pass through four national parks and as many as seven other protected areas. Some 35,000 acres of native forest could be destroyed. Forests affected by the dams alone provide critical habitat for over 100 protected and endangered animal and plant species.  

Within Patagonia, opposition to HidroAysen comes not just from environmentalists, but also from the business sector that wants to develop adventure and eco-tourism, fishermen’s unions and some municipal governments. They decry the injustice of bearing the environmental and economic impacts of a project that would benefit industrialists far away to the north.

“What hurts me as a Chilean is that they’ve given our waters away to transnationals in exchange for nothing.  So what are we going to be able to leave for future generations? Today, the politicians say we’ll leave them electricity. But they don’t say the electricity is for the mining companies, not the people. It will turn out that we are slaves in our own lands,” said Renato Flores, president of the Fishermen’s Union of Puerto Gala.

At the national level, opposition to the project centers around Chile’s energy policy. Leading scientists point out that Chile is blessed with great potential for wind, tidal and geothermal energy. Now, they say, is the time for investment in these sustainable, renewable alternatives. The proposed Patagonia dams could supply Chile’s energy needs for 50 years at most, they say – and at irreparable and incalculable cost to the environment and local communities. Why not invest now in energy efficiency and renewable projects that can serve for hundreds of years? 

Chileans have formed an international coalition, the Patagonia Defense Council, to attack the HidroAysen project from all angles.  They asked US-based Global Response to launch an international letter-writing campaign to pressure Chilean corporations and government to oppose the project. For information on where to send your letter visit www.globalresponse.org.

Paula Palmer is the executive director for Global Response.