Municipality of La Florida fails to monitor environmental damage from chemical industry in Bosque Panul
Every day the owners of Fundo Panul spread tonnes of sand throughout the forest, endangering this fragile ecosystem under the complicit gaze of the Municipality. The community is preparing legal action.
The company Gelymar, owned by the owners of Fundo Panul (the Navarrete Rolando family), has dumped thousands of tonnes of sea sand at various points throughout the forest. This is part of an industrial process involving the drying of seaweed for the production of a thickener called carrageenan.
The operations of this company have caused significant environmental damage, as this sand has desertified extensive areas of native forest.
Furthermore, this industrial activity endangers the people living downstream, as Gelymar has filled in ravines, increasing the material that could be swept away in a possible landslide.
Despite announcements of forest protection, the Municipality of La Florida chose not to prevent this environmental damage. The most recent amendment to the Zoning Plan (No. 9, 2015) did not prohibit this business by the Navarrete family on Fundo Panul. This is in addition to the logging that occurred several months ago and the water treatment plant planned for construction — demonstrating that Bosque Panul is gravely threatened.
If we look at the location of these points, they coincide precisely with the route of the future road network that the mayor intends to extend into Panul, including Calle Santa Sofía and Avenida Rojas Magallanes.
Red Precordillera is preparing legal action to expel Gelymar from Bosque Panul, and to investigate the municipality's failure of duty in not monitoring the crime of obstructing ravines.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera.
The content expressed in this article is the responsibility of its original authors and does not necessarily represent the views associated with the Panul Para Todos project.
The information archived in Archivo Panul was collected using automated tools, so there may be inconsistencies between what is presented here and the original link. You can visit the original link at the top of this article.