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Environmental Law Journal becomes part of Scielo Chile

The publication edited by the Environmental Law Center will be part of an open access collection of Chilean scientific journals in all areas of knowledge.

The Environmental Law Journal, edited by the Environmental Law Center of the Law School of the University of Chile, was admitted to be part of the SciELO - Chile Scientific Electronic Library.

SciELO - Chile is an open access collection of texts from Chilean scientific journals, from all areas of knowledge, which predominantly publish articles resulting from scientific research, and which uses peer review of the manuscripts they receive, which show a growing performance in the indicators of compliance with the indexing criteria.

"We are very pleased with this recognition, which is the result of an effort of continuous improvement of the editorial processes developed by the editorial team, which has resulted in the growing increase in the quality of the articles published over the years," said the director of the Journal, Prof. Valentina Durán Medina, adding "we are grateful for the support of the Faculty, which through its Dean, Prof. Pablo Ruiz-Tagle, and the Journals Program of the Research Department, headed by Prof. Daniel Álvarez, has provided permanent support to the work of the journal."

"Once the collaboration agreement between the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile and the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) is signed, the full incorporation of the journal to this collection will take place, starting in 2022" explained the editor Jorge Ossandón Rosales.

This good news is in addition to the admission, in 2020, of the Environmental Law Journal to the SCOPUS database.

As a result, in 2022 the Environmental Law Journal will already be indexed in Scopus, Redib, DOAJ and Latindex, in addition to ScIELO, with the support of SISIB and the Journals Program of the Research Department of the Law School of the Universidad of Chile.

It should be noted that Issue 16 of this biannual journal will be published on December 31.

 

Compensation for impacts in biodiversity and natural resources

Authors

  • Patricio Leyton Georgetown University
  • Carola Salamanca Universidad de Chile

Abstract

This article reviews the latest regulatory trend in relation to biodiversity and natural resources compensation. To this effect, we analyze several legal provisions in which these types of compensation measures con be found, with a special focus on the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA, for its Spanysh acronym), established by LAw N° 19.300, wich sets fort the General Environmental Framework. According to the SEIA, besides complying with the applicable environmental regulation, the project owner must mitigate, repair and/or compensate the significant environmental impacts the project produces, although the SEIA's Regulation does not establish in detail wich standards the compensation measures must fulfill. Therefore, in 2014 the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA, for its Spanish acronym) prepared the Guide for the Biodiversity Compensation within the SEIA, wich provides a series of elements to consider in the adequate implementation of compensation measures for the loss of biodiversity. Thus, considering the criteria developed in the aforementioned Regulation and Guide, we review practical cases from the SEIA, explaining how such criteria have been applied. Finally, we reflect upon whether such compensation mechanisms are sufficient to guarantee the protection of our biodiversity and natural resources, and about the direction in which we should now advance.

Keywords:

Biodiversity compensation, Environmental compensation measures, Environmental Impact Assessment System