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A Ray of Hope for the Swans |
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By Daniela Estrada*
Activists
applaud the start of an international evaluation phase of a swan
sanctuary in southern Chile that was contaminated by pulp mill runoff.
They say it is a victory for civil society in its efforts to protect
Chile's wetlands.
SANTIAGO, Oct 30 (Tierramérica) - The world's
highest authority on wetlands will visit Chile in November to evaluate
the problems afflicting the southern nature sanctuary Carlos Anwandter,
where the water was contaminated by runoff from a pulp mill, killing
hundreds of black-necked swans two years ago.
Peter Bridgewater, secretary general of the intergovernmental Convention
on Wetlands, signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, will visit the nature
preserve to determine a plan for technical support. He will meet
with Chilean officials, local researchers and civil society groups,
according to Catalina Bau, director of the governmental National
Forest Corporation (CONAF).
The visit comes after the Chilean government filed a request for
the sanctuary to be included in the Montreux Record, a list of wetlands
of international importance whose ecosystems are threatened.
Bridgewater's visit and inclusion in the list are positive signs
from the governments of the "Concertación", the center-left coalition
that has governed Chile since 1990, says Eduardo Israel, of the
non-governmental organization Action for the Swans (Acción por los
Cisnes).
It is "a victory for civil society," he told Tierramérica, noting
that two years ago his organization was the first to request a petition
for inclusion in the Montreux Record.
"We can recuperate some trust in the authorities. Objective professionals
are going to come, without political or economic interests. Things
can no longer be hidden," Israel said.
The privately held company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (Celco)
is accused of causing an environmental disaster in the Carlos Anwandter
sanctuary -- named in memory of a scientist and philanthropist --
by dumping its wastewater in the Río Cruces, the river that feeds
the wetland.
And Celco continues to dump its wastewater in the river, but faces
a deadline in April 2007 to present an alternative project for elimination
of the mill's waste.
Action for the Swans charged that serious infractions have been
committed in the operation of the pulp mill, which annually produces
685 tons of bleached kraft cellulose from pine and eucalyptus and
which utilizes elemental chlorine free (ECF) process.
The sanctuary, located in Chile's 10th region, Los Lagos, 840 km
south of Santiago, is also known as the Río Cruces wetland, and
has the most numerous black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus) population
in the South American southern cone.
In 1981 the Río Cruces area was declared a wetland of international
importance by the Ramsar Convention.
Twenty-five years later, on Oct. 6, it was added to the Montreux
Record because it presented negative changes in its ecosystems that
require immediate attention and assessment.
According to the forest agency CONAF, the 4,877-hectare wetland
is now home to some 400 black-necked swans. Until 2004, the average
population was about 6,000.
In mid-2004, the water of the Río Cruces turned brown, hundreds
of swans died, and thousands more left the area. Citizen groups
began to publicly denounce the situation, and the government called
for investigations, which ultimately put the blame on Celco.
"We evaluated 15 or 16 hypotheses, which we discarded one by one.
Finally, we established that the water quality had changed when
we compared the pre and post Celco periods," the head of the government-ordered
study, Eduardo Jaramillo, of the Southern University of Chile, told
Tierramérica.
The changes in the composition of the water affected the waterweed,
the main sustenance of the swans. The swans died from the high concentration
of heavy metals -- especially iron -- that collected in their livers.
"As of October 2006 neither the waterweed nor the swans of the wetland
have recovered. Nor are there eggs or nests. The birds have gone
two years without reproducing," said Jaramillo.
Although the citizen groups called for the immediate addition of
the wetland in the Montreux Record, the Chilean government opted
to draw up a "National Strategy for the Conservation and Rational
Use of Wetlands in Chile" and an "Integrated Plan for Environmental
Management of the Río Cruces Wetland", which entails 25 projects
for monitoring, restoration and conservation of the nature sanctuary.
The plan, presented by Conaf in August, has yet to be implemented.
The fact that experts like the secretary general of the Wetlands
Convention are coming to Chile "will help provide more tools for
research and promote new ideas. The advantage they have is that
they can see the problem from the outside," said Jaramillo.
Both Jaramillo and Action for the Swans spokesman Israel say the
recovery of the wetlands depends on Celco runoff halting completely
-- and a definitive solution seems to be a far-off dream.
The pulp mill considered building artificial pools and channeling
the waste into the ocean. But the proposal generated strong opposition
from artisanal fisherfolk, who even prevented Celco from conducting
environmental impact studies, such was their fear of water contamination.
* Daniela Estrada is an IPS correspondent. |
