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Abstract
Existing legal and regulatory frameworks in Chile do not ensure adequate opportunities to address the trade-offs associated with hydropower effectively. As a result, hydro projects have become the focus of intense public protests and legal disputes. This article provides a historical overview of hydro development in Chile, and then analyses three elements of Chile’s hydropower ‘problem’: the need for improved governance of the electricity and water sectors, more comprehensive and timely environmental and social impact assessment, and fuller respect for the rights of indigenous peoples affected by hydropower projects.
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Notes on contributors
Lawrence Susskind
Lawrence Susskind is Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the MIT Science Impact Collaborative, Vice Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and Founder and Chief Knowledge Officer of the Consensus Building Institute. He can be contacted by email at [email protected].
Teodoro Kausel
Teodoro Kausel is professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile, and is associated with the university’s Institute of Economics and Center for Environmental Studies.
José Aylwin
José Aylwin is a lawyer, Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Legal and Social Studies, Universidad Austral de Chile, and is Co-director of the Observatorio Ciudadano, Chile.
Elizabeth Fierman
Elizabeth Fierman is an independent mediator, and is a consultant to the Consensus Building Institute and the Universidad Austral de Chile.
The authors thank MISTI-Chile at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Universidad Austral de Chile for their generous support of the development of this article. We are also grateful to Patricio Belloy, Jennie Hatch and Miguel Salas for their research assistance, and to Johannes Horstmann for preparing the maps. We thank Carl Bauer and Ignacio Perez-Arriaga for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.