ICTA-UAB researcher urging action to protect the mountains of Chile
Mountains cover 64% of Chile's surface and are a crucial source of water, food, energy, minerals and biodiversity.
Coinciding with the celebration of the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development, a group of Chilean scientists, including ICTA-UAB researcher Julián Caviedes, has published a letter in Nature in which they urge action to protect the Chilean mountains. In the letter, published on June 14th, they ask Chilean scientists to come together with communities and stakeholders to tackle the degradation of Chile’s mountains.
Researchers ask for help and transdisciplinary research by Chilean scientist and call for a discussion on the creation of a National Policy for the Sustainable Use of Mountains in Chile, with a participatory approach, where policymakers, academia and communities, including Indigenous peoples and self-organised citizens, work together with the public sector, the private sector and industry, with the aim of promoting a more sustainable management of these territories, and preventing discussions from failing as they did in 2016.
José Tomás Ibarra from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Julián Caviedes, from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and Carla Marchant from Austral University of Chile are the authors of the letter.