CURRENT PROJECTS 2022/23
INTERCAMBIO 22/23
With INTERCAMBIO 22/23 the CCCX will facilitate travel to Chile for environmental researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in order that they may exchange information and collaborate with Chilean hosts on a variety of topics. There will be up to ten exchange visits. The first round of trips will take place between November 2022 and January 2023. Topics addressed will include monitoring marine protected areas, drought management, a new law of the coast and tree ring research relevant to the climate crisis. A second round will take place in March and April of 2023. Topics addressed will include water policy, drought, fog, kelp conservation and production, desalinization, and river protection. In addition to their expertise, criteria for selecting the experts to travel are (1) demand - the interest of a Chilean organization to meet with and host the person, and (2) the prospect of the participant’s ongoing collaboration with the host organization and others. These smaller specific exchange visits are in lieu of a large single conference. We use Zoom to plan the exchange visits, but we believe in the value of in-person visits to build relationships and advance collaboration.
A SECOND ANNUAL “MEET UP”
APRIL/MAY 2023
On May 13, 2022 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California the CCCX brought together about 60 people from academia, government, and the business and nonprofit sectors who are working on environmental/conservation projects in Chile to (1) get to know one another; (2) gain a better understanding of the full range of collaborative environmental/conservation activities underway in Chile, and (3) learn about current political and Constitutional developments then underway in Chile. Minister of the Environment Maisa Rojas welcomed the group and outlined her agenda in a pre-recorded video and constitutional scholar Javier Couso brought the group up to date on the constitutional process. Short presentations from about 10 organizations followed and the event ended with a Chilean wine and empenadas reception. The remarks of Minister Rojas and a brief summary of the presentations are included in the ARCHIVE of this website.
We plan to make the Meet Up an annual event. Funding permitting, we will have the Second
Annual Chile California Conservation Meet Up in the Bay Area in April or May of 2023. All the participants in INTERCAMBIO 22/23 will be invited to give presentations on their trip and their work.
HOSTING VISITING DELEGATIONS FROM CHILE
DROUGHT MANAGEMENT
In late June Chile’s National Agency of Research and Development (ANID) sent a delegation of scholars headed by professor Jorge Gironas from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile to California to meet with water experts to discuss issues related to drought that are affecting both California and Chile. The goal of the ANID project is to develop an integrated drought monitoring and public policy framework for the proactive management of drought. To achieve this goal the project is built upon 5 work packages: (1) characterization of droughts; (2) Platform for drought monitoring; (3) Public policy design for drought management; (4) Sectorial application for human rights to water; and (5) Sectorial application for productive uses at regional and national scales. Together with the Chile California Council, the CCCX hosted the group for a roundtable discussion on the UC Berkeley campus. We are following up by sending an INTERCAMBIO delegation of California water experts to Chile in December.
FOG RESEARCH
Similarly in September the Chile California Council and the CCCX hosted a group of experts on fog and the environment from the Atacama Desert Center of Universidad Católica de Chile on the final leg of a California tour. The team has a network of fog collectors along the Chilean coast complemented with satellite imagery and other analytic methods. They were visiting California to share their experience and learn about new fog sites, data management, technologies, and to gain a better understanding of the behavior of California fog and coastal ecosystems. Members of the team included Sergio Guitart, Camilo del Rio, Pablo Osses and Juan Luis Garcia. Among other places, they visited the Bodega Marine Lab and Pepperwood Preserve. They concluded the trip with a roundtable discussion moderated by Todd Dawson with the UC Natural Reserve System. The Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile has a cooperative agreement with the University of California Natural Reserve System.
FROM THE “PUBLIC TRUST DOCTRINE” TO “CUSTODIA PUBLICA DE LA NATURALEZA”
In 2020 and 2021 the CCCX brought together legal scholars in the U.S and Chile to produce a report on the relevance of the legal public trust doctrine to the constitutional process then underway in Chile – Protección de la Naturaleza y Una Nueva Constitución para Chile: Lecciones de la Doctrina del Public Trust. Spanish and English versions of the report are available in the ARCHIVE on this website. Under the leadership of Dominique Hervé and Verónica Delgado, the report provided inspiration for the concept of La Custodia Pública de la Naturaleza. The constitution drafted by initial Constitutional Assembly was roundly rejected in a national plebiscite in September 2022, but the concept of La Custodia Publica de la Naturaleza will have continuing relevance as a new constitutional process emerges.
NEW IDEAS?
Our resources are limited but we welcome ideas for how we can better link people and organizations working to better understand and protect the environment in Chile and California.