MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Initiative to upgrade Chilean Antarctic Province to “Special Territory”

Tte. Marsch, Chile’s first stopping air field to Antarctica

A group of Chilean senators from the ruling Conservative coalition presented a constitutional reform initiative that would declare as a ‘special territory’ the Chilean Antarctic Province with the purpose of protection and conservation of the zone’s biodiversity.

The initiative that would open the way for the constitutional amendment was presented to the Senate’s Government, De-centralization and Regionalization Committee which if approved means Chilean Antarctic would have a similar status to Easter Island and the Juan Fernández archipelago.

In the presentation in support of the proposal the Senators argue that the ‘special territory’ denomination is needed for Chilean Antarctica because it must be acknowledged that as happens with Easter island and Juan Fernandez “the geographic condition relegates it vis-à-vis the development of the rest of the national territory, and as an echo system it has a direct impact on our country”.

“Experience has shown that in extreme places regional and provincial institutional mechanisms are inadequate al local scale. Therefore they need specific rules to address those particular characteristics”.

The Senators believe this can be achieved with a Constitutional Organic bill on Government and Special Administration for the Antarctica province.

The initiative also emphasizes that such rules will also guarantee a better protection of Chilean sovereignty, as well as a better development of ‘all those activities allowed in that vast territory’, enabling the full compliance with the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which became effective June 1961.