Press release in Geography UC.
After it was decided not to hold COP25 in our country as planned, Madrid became the new venue, where our UC Geography professor, Carolina Martínez spoke about the broad problems facing our coastal area in terms of governance and conservation.
The CIGIDEN professor and researcher traveled to Madrid, through the Chile-California Council support in the Chilean pavilion, together with the members of the Observatorio de la Costa, an entity which she heads. “We held two talks focused on surveying the problem of conservation of the coastal zone and how it could change to an adequate governance for the 21st century, thinking about adaptive processes to climate change “, he pointed.
These two exhibitions were destined to be held in Santiago, in the “green zone” of the COP, a category that was focused on demonstrating the benefits of the relationship between science and citizens. “The Observatory was already developing accompaniment to citizens on key coastal issues: protection of wetlands, dune fields, coastal erosion. These are the problems that have been made visible as part of the effects of extreme events, ”explained Martínez.
“ These are issues that concern people, especially real estate pressure, many citizen groups are making efforts to defend the natural heritage before different pressures ”, He added.
For two days our academic was in Madrid: in the first the talks were held, while in the second they met with different working groups to generate alliances with parliamentarians, NGOs and foundations.
The professor explained that it was very important to participate in the COP to present the work of the Observatorio de la Costa regarding the legislation on a coastal law: “We explained its work with the public and the way of making the scientific research transit to the community to focus on conservation objectives and thus change the way decisions are made around coastal environments. For this, we invited a communal environmental committee from Algarrobo, led by Jaqueline Peters, representing the environmental committees of the province of Valparaíso. The idea is that the environmental committees were the interlocutors of the citizen groups that could validate the proposals of this new governance ”.
Carolina Martínez is emphatic in underlining that any change that is intended to be made must have the support of the community: “They are the ones who are experiencing the effects of climate change. It is these coastal communities that are affected by extreme events and natural disasters and they are the ones that today have the power to change the situation of use ”.
What did you get by going to COP25?
On January 14, a seminar will be held in the regional administration of Valparaíso, entitled “Coastal Law in Chile: For a new coastal governance in the context of climate change “, where Senators Alfonso de Urresti, Ximena Ordenes and Kennet Pugh will be supporting the proposal to legislate around a coastal law.
“Everything we are doing now and mainly this consensus around legislating on the coastal zone that is going to take place on the 14th, is the result of our participation in the COP, because most of the commitments that are involved around this law of coasts is the result of the conversations of the work that was done there. There they promised to join forces, between the parliamentary, citizen and scientific component ”, affirmed Professor Martínez.
“In this activity on January 14, regional universities will be invited to take part in this task and decision makers around the Ministry and local governments and municipalities. A new policy paper will be delivered that will discuss the scope and principles that a coast law should have ”, he added.
“The great achievement of the COP was to show that there is a poorly visible problem in the governance of our coastal zone, that we have very serious conservation problems that need urgent measures if we want marine-coastal ecosystems to survive for the next generations and be available as mitigation elements for climate change ”, explained the academic.
What results are expected from this seminar?
The teacher is optimistic in this regard, indicating that she expects a public statement on legislating in the coastal zone: “The Urrestri senate is going to sponsor the law, because a transversal commission of parliamentarians was required, so they are from different political sectors and are parliamentarians who have a trajectory linked to the protection of the environment ”.
“The political system today is in question. The socio-political crisis that we are experiencing is linked to the degradation of natural resources on the coast because different rights that people have are linked: from the right to live in a pollution-free environment to the protection of life. People live in the sacrifice zone, they are exposed to disasters, we have already carried out 13 reconstruction processes in 10 years”, Concluded the teacher.
