Press release on the zoning plan change for Hualpén
Regarding the approval of the Zoning Plan for the Municipality of Hualpén, as the organization Panul Parque Comunitario: We reject the approval of the project as a whole, which, from an anthropocentric perspective, seeks to promote the urbanization of the Hualpén sanctuary. This is achieved through the expansion of the industrial zone and a series of actions that undermine the integrity of the local ecosystem — such as filling in wetlands or pushing real estate development to the riverbank — under the pretext of favoring the possibilities for municipal development, and the establishment of tourist and recreational services in order to "protect natural values."
Press Release PARQUE COMUNITARIO PANUL
Regarding the approval of the Zoning Plan for the Municipality of Hualpén, as the organization Panul Parque Comunitario: We reject the approval of the project as a whole, which, from an anthropocentric perspective, seeks to promote the urbanization of the Hualpén sanctuary. This is achieved through the expansion of the industrial zone and a series of actions that undermine the integrity of the local ecosystem — such as filling in wetlands or pushing real estate development to the riverbank — under the pretext of favoring the possibilities for municipal development, and the establishment of tourist and recreational services in order to "protect natural values."
We find it unacceptable to conceive of expanding the industrial zone in the middle of an area currently classified as a tsunami flood, overflow, and waterlogging risk zone, putting the rest of the community in obvious danger.
We repudiate the conduct of the council members and the mayor of Hualpén, who disregard the citizens' observations made during the 3rd public consultation period on this preliminary project — observations that, seeking to safeguard the sanctuary, were backed by studies from the scientific community at Universidad de Concepción (EULA 1), which proposed eliminating the area earmarked for urbanization within a space that, since 1976, had been declared a protected zone.
We accuse the municipal council and mayor Katherine Torres Machuca of a total lack of transparency, for carrying out a closed-door voting process to the detriment of the aforementioned community proposals.
We are opposed to the historical public-private alliance promoted by the State and its current (albeit declining) development model, which normalizes practices that render invisible the needs and proposals put forward by the community for the management of these areas, creating bureaucratic mechanisms that prevent effective participation, and which also fail to guarantee that protection objectives are met — responding instead to individual political interests and favoring the actions of large real estate companies.
We denounce the fact that the area encompassing the sanctuary in question is currently subdivided and in private hands, namely: the Hualpén, Santa Eloísa, Las Escaleras, Chome, Perone, Ramuntcho, and Lenga estates, making it clear that it is the various private owners with their individual economic interests who stand in opposition to the objectives for which the Sanctuary was created.
We wish to make public the conduct of the Navarrete family (through companies such as Gesterra S.A., Algina, and Oxiquim), who — in alliance with local authorities — insist on continuing to deplete areas of native forest throughout the territory. So much so that the Sanctuary of the Hualpén Peninsula and the sclerophyllous forest of the Santiago precordillera (Panul) share this family as a common enemy.
We understand in this context that the community's efforts to protect the sanctuary are part of the same struggle, one in which we cannot refrain from speaking out and taking part.
We stand in solidarity, as we have witnessed the same practices and abuses from local authorities and private actors toward our own community — through projects based on fraudulent studies, tedious and not genuinely binding processes — giving a false sense of community influence over public policy, which prevents progress toward a local governance plan that would enable us to effectively commit to the protection of native forests.
We are tired of the same politicians, who with their technocratic lens think us ignorant and incapable of producing the knowledge and wisdom needed to take charge of and care for the socio-natural environment in which we live and coexist.
We firmly believe in community governance, where the organized collective is capable of managing and determining the fate of its own territories, being active subjects in the decisions that lead to social protection, well-being, and the preservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity.
We send our heartfelt support to the various organized communities of Hualpén, who day after day fight and resist, placing their history, their memory, and their knowledge above the injustices of the State.
Strength to Hualpén! Community organization will prevail!
SIGNATORIES: Parque Comunitario Panul - Red Precordillera - Asamblea Territorial Aluvión - Santuario Alto Macul - Asamblea de Santa Raquel - Asamblea de Rojas Magallanes con av. La Florida - Cabildo Abierto la Alborada - Asamblea Latinoamérica Unida - Asamblea Trinidad - Asamblea Colombia con Perpetua - Asamblea del 22
Parque Comunitario Panul
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