In the latest issue of the Journal of the First Environmental Court, a scientific publication, a team of researchers from the Centre has published an article entitled “High Andean wetlands under environmental stress: The contribution of interdisciplinary scientific research to conciliation processes in environmental damage cases”.
The authorship of this publication reflects the accumulated knowledge gained over several years of work on projects related to High Andean wetlands by a team of nine researchers from SMI Chile’s Environmental Rehabilitation and Ecosystem Dynamics area: Fernanda Caro Beveridge, Edmundo Claro, Daniela Gamboa, David Rubinos, María Paz Valenzuela, Dilan Campos, Pablo Bustos, Marcela Calderón, and Jacques Wiertz.
The article highlights the extreme fragility and vulnerability of High Andean wetlands—ecosystems that are essential for the survival of vegetation and fauna in these environments.
“In the face of increasing pressure on these ecosystems,” the authors state, “it is essential to achieve a deeper understanding of their ecosystem dynamics, as well as to develop tools to support their sustainable management.”
Through a series of case studies, the article presents lessons learned from the development of various research projects and proposes strategies and guidelines for effectively addressing conciliation processes related to environmental damage in High Andean wetlands in northern Chile. It underscores the importance of building a robust and standardised scientific database to support the conservation and restoration of these ecosystems, as well as the value of collaboration with local and Indigenous communities that inhabit these territories, particularly in the development of joint environmental education initiatives.
Among the main conclusions of the article is the central role of science in environmental conflict conciliation processes: “Science, through tools such as forensic analysis, generates verifiable and traceable evidence that makes it possible to establish the existence, magnitude and chronology of damage. This, in turn, confers legal value on ecological processes and strengthens the legitimacy of conciliation agreements.
Download the article here
“High Andean wetlands under environmental stress: The contribution of interdisciplinary scientific research to conciliation processes in environmental damage cases”
