A law designed to protect the rights of Indigenous communities has sparked controversy in Chile as small groups have used it to claim autonomy over thousands of hectares of sea. Critics argue that this constitutes an abuse of the legislation. The resulting demands have heightened social tensions, leading fish industry workers to organize protests to safeguard their jobs from Indigenous claims.
On June 3, the Chilean Regional Commission for the Use of Coastal Edge (CRUBC) — the governmental body in charge of managing and regulating coastal areas in the Los Lagos Region — reviewed five requests to have 3,000 hectares of sea handed over to Indigenous communities.
After nearly five hours of debate amid regional tensions and protests from union workers, four out of five requests were rejected by a large majority vote, permitting non-Indigenous workers to continue using the area for fish farming.
But Indigenous groups have threatened to judicialize the process, warning that this appeal was “just the beginning” of their attempt to take control over ancestral areas.
The Huilliche ethnic group of Antünen Rain and Pu Wapi, part of the Mapuche, attempted to claim the coastal spaces of the Huichas and Cisnes Islands in the southern region of Aysén under Chile’s Coastal Maritime Space of Native Peoples (ECMPO).
However, the large majority of government entities, mayors, and private individuals saw this appeal as a misuse of the Lafkenche law, arguing that the extension of ECMPO would be disproportionate to the number of people requesting autonomy of the sea.
Previously, in February, the request of two Indigenous communities, totaling just 38 people, for control of more than 621,000 hectares of sea surrounding the same islands had been rejected. Although Indigenous peoples claim these coastal areas are vital for their cultural, social, and economic activities, granting the demands would have put the jobs of over 5,000 workers at risk.
The requests denied on June 3 included a smaller area of 3,000 hectares but nevertheless caused the suspension of authorizations for aquaculture. There are 1,000,000 hectares in the Los Lagos region that are being processed and 387 applications for aquaculture concessions are paused by the Lafkenche law.
Protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples
The Lafkenche law is a piece of legislation that was enacted in Chile in 2008 with the aim of protecting the ancestral rights of the Indigenous Lafkenche people, particularly concerning the use and conservation of coastal marine areas that are essential to their way of life and cultural practices.
A key aspect of the law is ECMPO, which allows Indigenous communities to apply for the legal recognition of Marine Coastal Spaces of Native Peoples.
Although the legislation was considered a significant step in recognizing and advancing the interests of Indigenous peoples in Chile, ensuring that their way of life connected to the coastal environment can continue for generations, recent tensions between workers and Indigenous groups have shed light on what they view as a misapplication of the law.
The demands have created regional tension between Indigenous peoples, salmon industry workers, fishermen, and parliamentarians. Salmon workers, along with other aquaculture workers gathered in Quellón in April and Puerto Montt in May to march against bids for ECMPO.
“We hope that the government has the solidity and responsibility to ensure the common good, not to generate more labor disruptions, which would worsen the regional situation,” said the spokesperson of the salmon union, Marta Oyarzo.
However, the outcome of the vote has not weakened resistance from Indigenous groups, who have warned that their appeals are “just the beginning.”
Mapuche land claims in recent years have led to conflicts resulting in several deaths and the announcement of a state of emergency in some parts of the country.
“The sea is for everyone”
Parliamentarians viewed that an extension of ECMPO in these coastal areas would be misapplying a law intended to protect Indigenous rights to the detriment of salmon industry workers and artisanal fishermen whose livelihoods would be threatened.
The majority of the opposition pointed out that the flaws in the demands: The lack of clarification over what the seas would be used for, and the overlap between ECMPO and national reserves, such as the Las Guaitecas National Reserve, further complicated the possibility of granting full control of seas used for various coastal activities to a few Indigenous people.
A lawyer for AquaChile, the biggest salmon farm in Chile, had previously argued in April that the allocation of areas of southern Chile’s coastal sea to Indigenous people should be suspended until flaws in the Lafkenche Law be rectified. “The sea is for everyone,” he claimed, going on to say that the demands were “deviations from the inspiration of the law.”
This view was echoed after the vote last week by Territorial Director of SalmonChile, Tomás Monge, who requested that the law be temporarily suspended.
“Regardless of the outcome of today’s vote, the broad interpretation of the Lafkenche Law has generated great conflict and uncertainty. Therefore, as a union, we believe it is necessary that no new EMCPOs continue to enter and that a moratorium be established, both on new applications and on the processing of applications already in process,” Monge explained.
