Open letter to the President of the Republic, Michelle Bachelet
Dear President:
We address you as the highest government authority and former resident of La Florida, to ask you to resolve a very serious problem occurring in our district — one that will affect all of Santiago. We are speaking of the city's last native forest, popularly known as Bosque Panul.
Dear President:
We address you as the highest government authority and former resident of La Florida, to ask you to resolve a very serious problem occurring in our district — one that will affect all of Santiago. We are speaking of the city's last native forest, popularly known as Bosque Panul.
Its owners, who acquired the fundo from the Universidad de Chile through an irregular process during the dictatorship, want to destroy it to make way for more than 1,000 high-value homes. The community, by contrast — aware of the incalculable value of this ecosystem — has for years been building a community park project. Thousands of people visit it every month, and it serves as an important makeshift place of learning and recreation in a district that has no more than 2.2 m² of green space per resident.
Our world is changing rapidly, and we cannot turn a deaf ear to this. The advance of the desert from the north, or the dramatic drought and scarcity of rainwater across the country, leads us to rethink our way of developing and growing as a city. We now know we cannot do so at the expense of our environmental heritage.
Bosque Panul is a strategic territory, an ecosystem that provides multiple benefits to the entire Santiago valley. It lies at the foot of one of the most active ravines on the mountain — the Lo Cañas ravine — helping to prevent landslides and mass movements; with its ancient trees and deep roots, it absorbs rainwater, preventing flooding; by maintaining moisture, it generates breezes and vegetation that cleanse our polluted air. The reasons to protect it are more than sufficient, and that is why residents, without exception, want this place to be officially protected.
We have tried everything humanly possible to achieve this. Ten years ago we organized to work toward it, starting at the local level. Many mayors and authorities pledged their support, but none followed through — even after categorical public consultations in which 99% of voters called for protection. Today, there are still laws that permit the destruction of this vital ecosystem, but there are also laws that protect it — such as the native forest law, or Supreme Decree 82, issued in 1974, which prohibits the felling of precordilleran forests. Democracy cannot give us less than the dictatorship gave us.
We still have time to resolve this imminent environmental conflict in an institutional and peaceful way. Panul can still be protected through the Santiago Metropolitan Zoning Plan, by declaring it a Park and a construction-free area — something we attempted at the local level, but which La Florida's mayor, Rodolfo Carter, refused to do. You, Madam President, still have time to do so. In this way, Bosque Panul will be protected, its economic value will be reduced, and expropriation will be facilitated.
The forest continues there, resisting — and if institutional mechanisms still exist to save it, we must use them. We are certain you will understand the gravity of losing such a beloved green lung, and will intervene to halt this serious environmental crisis that is approaching.
We want to live in peace and in harmony with our territory. If an entire community is calling for the protection of this natural bastion, our authorities cannot ignore this social interest — which generates far more public benefit than private real estate profit.
We do not want to be remembered as the generation that lost Santiago's last native forest. The Community Park will continue to advance, because today we want to be responsible for the world in which we have the privilege to live.
We hope you will understand the gravity of this conflict and instruct the key authorities to protect and expropriate Panul. An entire country will be grateful.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera.
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