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Who Killed the Swans? |
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By Gustavo González*
Ecologists
argue that a cellulose factory caused the mass die-off of black-necked
swans (Cygnus melancoryphus) in southern Chile. But the accused
respond that the activists lack proof.
SANTIAGO - In a Río Cruces nature sanctuary
in southern Chile, a massive die-off of black-necked swans (Cygnus
melancoryphus) was reported. Environmental groups blame contamination
caused by a cellulose factory. But the plant's owners deny responsibility,
and the authorities have opted for a cautious attitude.
The Carlos Andwandter sanctuary, named in memory of a scientist
and philanthropist, until recently was home to some 6,000 of these
swans, the largest population in South America. Some 2,000 are left,
as around 100 died and thousands have migrated.
The site, located in the province of Valdivia, 790 km south of Santiago,
was declared an internationally important marsh in 1981 under the
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands for protecting these ecosystems that
are essential for water resources and biodiversity.
In February, after a long process for obtaining environmental permits,
the Valdivia factory of the company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución
(Celco) began operating. Its waste is dumped into the Río Cruces
some 15 km from where the river empties into the marsh.
The Regional Environmental Commission hit Celco with a 25,000-dollar
fine in April for the foul smell coming from the factory, perceptible
60 km away in the city of Valdivia.
Celco belongs to the Angelini Group, one of the two largest Chilean
business conglomerates thanks largely to lumber operations and cellulose
production, with investments in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, owning
a combined total of 779,000 hectares of forested lands.
Cellulose pulp is surpassed only by copper in generating revenues
in Chile's trade balance, and strong international prices have motivated
the Angelini Group to maximize its production.
Sara Larraín, director of the Sustainable Chile Program, told Tierramérica
that at both the Valdivia plant and another in Itata, further north,
Celco presented projects for producing 550,000 tons of cellulose
annually.
"But it has been illegally producing (at the two sites) more than
850,000 tons, overwhelming the treatment plants, emitting foul odors
and contaminating the environment," she said.
In October the black-necked swans began to die off, which the Chilean
office of the World Conservation Union attributed to the liquid
and gaseous waste from the Celco plant in Río Cruces, as they reported
Nov. 25 in Bangkok at the World Conservation Congress.
On Nov. 29, the regional environmental commission for Los Lagos
imposed two fines against Celco, worth 5,000 dollars each, for failing
to turn in timely reports measuring toxic waste from cellulose production
in sediments and water.
But environmental commission director José Luis García Huidobro
and the national government's designated intendant for the Los Lagos
region, Patricio Vallespín, insisted it has not been proved that
there is a relationship between that irregularity and the deaths
of the swans.
They echoed the statements from Eduardo Dockendorff, minister of
the presidential secretariat, who argued that the company "should
be presumed innocent until proved otherwise."
Celco president José Tomás Guzmán himself said, "As the environmental
authority has expressed, we must stress that no scientific study
exists that allows us to concluded that this phenomenon (death of
swans) is related to the operations of the cellulose plant."
Vallespín said he had entrusted the Southern University of Valdivia
to study the causes of the swans' death, and that the results would
be released in two weeks.
Sustainable Chile leader Larraín said Vallespín should order the
plant to halt operations, given the 19 environmental and production
irregularities found in a report by a consultant for the National
Environmental Commission.
The Río Cruces ecosystem "is ill or has been altered," because it
no longer supplies food and other necessities for the birds, evidenced
by the fact that this year the swans practically did not build nests
or lay eggs, Miguel Stuzic, expert with the government's Agriculture
and Livestock Service, said in an interview with El Mercurio newspaper.
"It was obvious from the start that the Celco cellulose plant would
discharge liquid waste into the Río Cruces, gravely harming the
flora and fauna. The worst is that the damage is irreversible and
will spread to other species through consumption of contaminated
water," Manuel Baquedano, president of the Instituto de Ecología
Política, told Tierramérica.
Baquedano and other environmentalists fought the construction of
the cellulose plant, which under its initial plan was going to dump
its waste into the Pacific Ocean through a duct, but that was rejected
by the local fishing communities.
* Gustavo González is an IPS correspondent.
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