Chile looks with pride at its natural heritage and has reasons to do so. But that pride implies an opportunity that we have not yet known how to take advantage of: understanding that nature is not the external stage where the economy occurs, but its deepest foundation. For decades, conservation has been understood as a cost with no return, even as a dimension opposed to economic development. That view is increasingly insufficient, because nature is not an inexhaustible source of resources nor the simple stage where economic development occurs, but the support that makes it viable. The World Economic Forum indicates that more than 50% of the global GDP, equivalent to nearly US$44 trillion, depends moderately or highly on nature and the ecosystem services it provides.<\/p>\n
Our country is not exempt from this reality. According to the National Biodiversity Assessment by the Ministry of the Environment, 17% of the Chilean GDP and 55% of its exports depend directly on its natural resources. Therefore, nature is an essential part of our economy. What is missing is recognizing, valuing, and conserving it with that same clarity.<\/p>\n
Valuing nature’s ecosystem services allows us to change the paradigm and break away from this false dilemma. Conservation and economic growth are not opposed. On the contrary, the former guarantees economic sustainability over time. Protecting a watershed, a wetland, or a native forest does not take land away from the economy; it ensures the water, stability, and resilience upon which productive activities and communities depend.<\/p>\n
The challenge, then, is to build the conditions to allow that value to be recognized and sustained in public and private decisions. The State plays an irreplaceable role by regulating, planning, and guiding. But private conservation also has a strategic role: mobilizing resources, assuming early risks, generating evidence, and developing solutions that can later scale through public-private partnerships.<\/p>\n
We have made progress in recognizing the importance of protecting our ecosystems, but we still have pending the construction of economic, institutional, and governance models that allow sustaining that conservation over time. Protecting a territory is only the first step. The real challenge is managing it, financing it, and connecting it with the communities.<\/p>\n
Giving value to ecosystems does not mean reducing them to a number or turning them into a commodity. It means recognizing that water, forests, soils, oceans, and biodiversity are critical infrastructure for productivity, territorial resilience, and quality of life.<\/p>\n
This does not mean reducing ecosystems to a number or turning them into a commodity. It means recognizing that water, forests, soils, oceans, and biodiversity are critical infrastructure for productivity, territorial resilience, and quality of life.<\/p>\n
The question is no longer whether we should conserve; that discussion seems increasingly resolved. The question is whether we will be able to build an economy that recognizes the value of the nature that sustains it and to care for it as what it is: the foundation of our future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made progress in recognizing the importance of protecting our ecosystems, but we still have pending the construction of economic, institutional, and governance models that allow sustaining that conservation over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Author(s):<\/p>\n
FRANCISCA CORT\u00c9S SOLARI
\nEXECUTIVE PRESIDENT OF FILANTROP\u00cdA CORT\u00c9S SOLARI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chile looks with pride at its natural heritage and has reasons to do so. But that pride implies an opportunity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-meri"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["es","en"],"languages":{"es":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72656,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72654\/revisions\/72656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacionmeri.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}