Chile obtains 61 points out of 100, below the world average

The Millennium Institute in Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS) and the High Latitude Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Research Center (IDEAL), in a joint work carried out for two years and with analysis of multiple sources, databases and reviews of ten indicators key, presented the results of the first evaluation of the Ocean Health Index (OOHI), a scientifically recognized indicator at an international level, which analyzed the state of the marine ecosystems of 103 coastal communities in Chile, between Arica and Punta Arenas.

This first exhaustive evaluation of the state of health of the ocean and its activities associated with the country’s coastal communities, resulted in an intermediate-high state of national ocean health, where Chile in general obtained 61 points out of a maximum of 100 in the measurement, which places our sea in a relatively healthy state, but at least 10 points below the world average of the 220 countries that have measurements, which averages 73 points.

“This evaluation was carried out through a collaborative effort between the IDEAL center and the Milenio SECOS Institute, with the objectives of comprehensively analyzing the health of Chile’s marine-coastal ecosystems, identifying priority areas for action in coastal communities. of Chile that require improving the health of the ocean, and promoting public awareness about the importance of ocean health and its impact on coastal communities,” says Laura Nahuelhual, coordinator of IdSO Chile and researcher at SECOS and IDEAL.

The IdSO measures the health of the world’s oceans, from global to local or community scales, and qualifies an ocean as “healthy” as it sustainably delivers a variety of benefits to people, now and in the future. future. These benefits are manifested through 10 indicators or “goals”, which include: Biodiversity; Carbon Sequestration; clean waters; Coastal Protection; Sense of place; Artisanal Fishing Opportunities; Natural products; Economies and Livelihoods; Food provision from artisanal fisheries and mariculture; and Tourism and recreation.

For Nahuelhual, also a researcher at the University of Los Lagos, “the results place Chile in an intermediate-high position, where the weighting of each goal is summarized in this figure, but with important variations between each one, so we think that “There is a lot of room for improvement for the country in several of its goals and communities.”

Results

In the evaluation process, as indicated by the international methodology, 10 Biodiversity variables or goals were evaluated (with Species and Habitat subgoals); Carbon Sequestration; Clean Waters; Coastal Protection; Sense of Place (with Iconic Species and Enduring Special Places subgoals); Artisanal Fishing Opportunities; Tourism and Recreation; Natural products; Food Provision from Artisanal Fisheries and Mariculture (with Fisheries and Mariculture subgoals); and Economies and Livelihoods (with Economies and Livelihoods subgoals).

Although a score of 61 is considered in the medium-high range, it is more than 10 points below the world average of 220 countries in 2023 (https://oceanhealthindex.org/global-scores), which reached a value of 73. This indicates that there is a lot of room for improvement for the country, both in several of the goals and in several of its communities, that active management of its pressures and development of resilience capacities can rebound from its lowest values.

Regarding the results by goal for Chile, of the 10 goals evaluated, the Biodiversity goal achieved the highest score with a value of 73.8 (where the maximum of each goal is 100), with 68.9% of the communes in the category “High” value (>80-100).

In contrast, the Artisanal Fishing Opportunities and Natural Products goals obtained the lowest scores (27.9 and 30.4 respectively), reflecting management and governance challenges in these areas, but also an opportunity to advance and improve these aspects. .

From the results by commune, we identified six groups of municipalities with similar profiles regarding certain goals, but without following a clear spatial trend. For example, some communes had very low scores in Artisanal Fishing Opportunities and Natural Products, while others had very low scores in Tourism and Mariculture.

From the breakdown by commune, the best evaluated considering the 10 goals were Toltén (73), Papudo (72), Castro (72), Cisnes (72), Queilén (71), Navidad (70), Valdivia (70) and Algarrobo ( 70), with high scores in several goals and others in the medium range, where none were too far from the national average of 61 points.

Another group showed medium to low scores in Natural Products and Tourism, but very high scores in Biodiversity and Coastal Protection. A large group of 84 communes had varied scores, mainly low to medium in some goals, but high in Coastal Protection, Clean Waters and Carbon Sequestration.

Another group with communes had low scores in Artisanal Fishing but high in Economies and Livelihoods. Finally, only one commune showed average scores in Artisanal Fishing and Food Provision, but very low scores in Economies and Livelihoods.

Finally, the communes that were located below the national average and in the middle ranges, mostly share pressures due to climate change (see map), with the exception of Río Verde (38), where the pressure was marked by the presence of invasive species .

Permanent evaluation

This enormous volume of open data, shared by various sources and public organizations, and which were part of the evaluation, constitutes critical information for decision-making with a view to coastal sustainability. Thus, the evaluation of the IdSO will be part of IDEOS, a Fondef IDeA R&D project, recently awarded to a multidisciplinary team made up of the Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), Data Observatory (DO), and the Millennium Institute in Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS), and which will develop the IDEOS ocean data platform for 2 years, which will allow for a constant and permanent evaluation of the health of the ocean in Chile.

The IDEOS project contemplates the creation of an integrated database, as well as an open-access interactive web platform, where results from Chile, results by IdSO goal and by commune can be reviewed. It will also have a map server that will allow interoperability with other open information sources.

“At Data Observatory we deeply understand the relevance of data, and especially those that fall into the “open” category, which allow us to advance research, innovation and the design of effective public policies. This commitment allows us to unify and optimize the value of various data sources, promoting a style of co-governance of these, so that informed and sustainable decisions can be made. Our goal is to maintain a constant evolution of our platform, attracting more collaborators who contribute valuable data, thus enriching our analyzes and perspectives, actively involving ourselves in the so-called data life cycle,” says Rodrigo Roa, executive director of Data Observatory.

Just like the first IdSO evaluation, the data is collected from public databases, and institutions that make their information available to collaborate with the IDEOS platform. In the future, it is proposed to have easily accessible visual elements such as infographics or traffic lights, to democratize the understanding of this information, both for experts and for the common citizen.