A milestone in environmental protection was experienced in Rapa Nui on the occasion of World Oceans Day, with the creation of the Network of Communities of Marine Protected Areas of Chile (REDCAMP), through the constitution of a corporation.
“Formalizing this corporation allows communities to generate links and collaborations with other territories, actively participate in the management of marine protected areas (MPA), influence public policies and undertake various actions at the community level,” explained Claudia Razeto. , director of Sustainable Caletas of Fundación Chile, a program that has accompanied the process to establish this corporation since 2023, with the support of the BHP Foundation Coastal Community Network.
The idea of forming this network arose in 2017, during the IV International Congress of Marine Protected Areas (IMPAC4). On that occasion, the representatives of Rapa Nui, Juan Fernández and Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda proposed to create this network. Since 2023, the representatives of each community together with Fundación Chile worked together to develop the statutes that allowed Redcamp to be formalized. To achieve the involvement of the communities, a cycle of dissemination, validation and adjustment of the statutes was carried out with the inhabitants of each territory, a process that culminated with the signing carried out in Rapa Nui.
“For BHP Foundation it is very important to be present in this signing, because it is a project that will be led by the communities themselves. The marine area of these three communities covers more than 85% of the protected sea in all of Chile, so there is a lot of work ahead,” said Alejandra Garcés, director of the BHP Foundation.
According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, in Chile there are 14 multiple-use marine protected areas, highlighting those that lead the network due to the participation of their communities, both in establishing and co-managing respectively the Mar de Juan Fernández MPAs. and Desventuradas Islands, belonging to the Valparaíso Region, and Pitipalena Añihue, in Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda, Aysén Region.
One of the signatories and who took over as vice president of Redcamp, Patricio Merino, executive director of the Pitipalena Añihue Foundation, from Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda, valued the creation of the network and indicated that one of its objectives is to continue growing: “we intend to add more communities that are in favor of the protection of their territories, that want to contribute from local knowledge, since no one knows better what happens in the territories than the people who live in them. It is very important that we can strengthen this organization and be able to make this alliance national in scope,” he expressed.
During the signing it was explained that, in the medium and long term, the corporation will seek, among other actions, to encourage the creation of other marine protected areas; along with inviting the current ones to join this network; implement administration, management and monitoring plans; have a differentiating seal for products coming from these areas, and be a voice that is heard when defining regulations that affect them.
“There are nearly 9,000 people who will benefit directly and indirectly, since the network involves the entire community in each territory. This impact could be expanded to communities that already have MPAs, such as Mar de Pisagua, among others. Added to these are potential marine protected areas, such as the Las Guaitecas Archipelago, where the Sustainable Caletas program has already carried out initiatives to promote the protection of the sea and its resources,” Razeto added.
