Explorando potenciales vínculos entre resilencia y justicia ambiental: El caso de Chaitén, Chile

Abstract

In May 2008, the city of Chaitén was completely evacuated due to the probability of a volcanic eruption. Few days later, the eruption caused severe flooding that almost destroyed the entire city. In the following months, the state developed plans for the relocation of Chaitén, and strategies to promote resilience and the recovery of population. However, plans and strategies resulted in unexpected results impacting people's ability to resist, adapt to, and recover from future disasters. This paper explores a potential asymmetric relationship in the distribution of environmental risks and resilience within Chaitén. Such relationship can be partially explained by the volcanic eruption, but more importantly, by unforeseen effects of decision making and policies implemented for the recovery of the affected population. Effects of the implemented benefit schemes and decision making related to the inhabitability/relocation of Chaitén can offer some explanation about the current situation of Chaitén; a highly segregated and environmentally unjust city where public policies' outputs are unevenly distributed. In this sense, this paper examines how plans and policies developed towards increasing resilience among population may, inversely, impact negatively on environmental justice, that is, on the distribution of environmental risks, exposure and disaster impacts.