Expansion or Contraction of Environmental Democracy?: Environmental Governance in the Programa para la Recuperación Ambiental y Social de Quintero-Puchuncaví

Abstract

This article focuses on the environmental governance practices of a novel ecosystem recovery/restoration mechanism in the Quintero-Puchuncaví Region, recognized as one of the main and most emblematic areas of environmental sacrifice in Chile. In this sense, it delves into the Programa para la Recuperación Ambiental y Social (PRAS), whose elaboration, implementation and follow-up of its objectives and measures is in charge of the Consejo para la Recuperación Ambiental y Social (CRAS), in which various representatives of civil society, companies and the public sector of the territory participated. Through the analysis of interviews, documents (minutes of sessions, agreements, regulations, etc.) and non-participant observation of its ordinary and extraordinary sessions, we delve into the way in which power relations are configured in the governance of the environmental and social restoration/recovery process in a territory affected by a deep and historical environmental injustice. This leads us to investigate how the PRAS relates to an environmental conflict that has experienced various processes of activation and latency, where constant tensions have been visualized between state agencies and companies in the area that try to contain and manage the conflict, on the one hand, and the resistance of the community that seeks to improve their quality of life and democratize and influence the spaces of environmental management, on the other.