Launch of the book “Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity of the Atacama Region”.

Among its lines, the document provides information on sensitive areas and protection measures,
thus furthering the goal of preserving the territory’s biodiversity for present and future generations.

One of the purposes of Compañía Minera del Pacífico (CMP) is to be and make a different kind of mining, sustainable with the territories, the people and the environment. The company adopted this commitment to sustainability and materialized it through the financing of the book “Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity of the Atacama Region”, launched on Thursday, August 1 in Copiapó.

This is a collaborative work between the Seremi de Medio Ambiente, academics from national and international universities, researchers from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity of the Universidad de La Serena and specialists from various areas such as marine biology, anthropology and arid zones, and was financed the company. In this way, it was possible to capture in 400 pages the ecosystems and biological diversity of Atacama, as well as the native peoples that inhabited it and the tools for the conservation of the region’s flora and fauna.

CMP’s general manager, Francisco Carvajal, said that “this collective effort has allowed a detailed immersion in various aspects of the territory, including the geology, climate, ocean, and cultures of the native peoples, as well as the flora and fauna. Such knowledge is crucial for the company, as it allows us to ensure that our presence is careful and respectful of the environment of which we are a part”.

Meanwhile, the Seremi of Environment of the Atacama Region, Natalia Penroz, commented that “in this process of elaboration there was a very important contribution of CMP to support this initiative and a coordinated public-private work with the editors, where there is a high participation of more than 100 authors who contributed with chapters, photographs and complete information that presents the book associated with biodiversity, and our natural and cultural heritage”.
During the book launching ceremony, a copy of the book was given to all the attendees, especially to representatives of educational establishments and students who participated in the event. The book will also be available to the entire educational community through the Seremi of Education, which already has copies to distribute in the region’s schools.

More than two and a half years of work went into the preparation of the book, which was edited four professionals and specialists in the area, Francisco Squeo, Dagoberto Arcos, Ricardo Catalán and Freddy Vargas.

“The challenge is that from the academy we can contribute with the necessary information for decision making. In Chile there is no document that integrates all the aspects of this book. I would like to highlight CMP because it is committed to developing its operations within a diversity policy,” said Squeo, an academic at the Universidad de La Serena and president of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity.