Weak governance undermines South America’s ocean ecosystems

In 2008, a cracked pipe in a refinery in Santa Elena province, Ecuador, polluted almost one square kilometer (0.39 square miles) of coastal water. In the last five years, there has been at least one major oil spill in the city of Esmeraldas. The most recent spill was in Las Palmas beach, of 20 barrels of light oil.

For this reason, the concession of five offshore oil wells off northern Peru in 2018 worried the population. Although the decrees that granted the five parcels were revoked a few months later, there is still concern at the possibility of future projects.

Chile, on the other hand, doesn’t have offshore drilling, but there are four declared “sacrifice zones” because of the pollution created by industrial activities. Places “forgotten by the different administrations that keep allowing the installation of new polluting industries even when the impact on people’s health and the environment has been huge,” as the NGO Oceana puts it. Thermal power stations; plants for refining or smelting copper, iron, hydrocarbons or chemical products; tailings; stockpiles of coal; ports where polluting products are loaded and unloaded; successive oil spills and cases of stranded coal have worsened the devastated seascapes over the years.

Moreover, the salmon industry, located in the south of the country, has caused great harm to the environment.

The sensitivity of protected areas

In 2010, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Peru were among countries that adopted the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a set of 20 commitments to comply with by 2020, including the protection of at least 10 percent of each country’s territorial waters.

Ecuador is home to 24 of the 27 kinds of marine and coastal ecosystems recognized at the global level. One of the most important natural sanctuaries in the world is located nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the mainland: the Galápagos Islands, whose preservation has been fundamental to understanding how life works on our planet.

This story first appeared on Mongabay

South Africa Today – Environment


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