About the project
Puerto Natales is a town of 22,000 people in Chile’s southern Magallanes region, located on the shores of the Última Esperanza fjord and close to Torres del Paine National Park. For over four decades, salmon farming has expanded across the Patagonian waters, increasingly concentrated in the hands of transnational corporations. Over the past ten years, the industry has grown unchecked, even intruding into protected areas such as the Kawésqar National Reserve.
The Puerto Demaistre plant processes salmon for export markets, while leaving behind pollution, water stress, noise, and disruption for nearby communities. The project is owned by Australis Seafoods, which in 2018 was bought by the Chinese company Joyvio Group, a subsidary of Legend Holdings.
The project was approved through a flawed and disorganized environmental review process in which lobbyists with revolving-door ties to state agencies smoothed its passage. Critically, the plant was not evaluated for cumulative impacts alongside salmon farms, well-boat traffic, or the wider chain of industrial aquaculture. This regulatory gap allows companies to externalize the true social and environmental costs onto local populations and ecosystems.
Communities in Puerto Natales have voiced serious concerns about the project. Studies predict this project will lead to the destruction of coastal habitats, risks of salmon escaping, antibiotic contamination, increased shipping traffic, loss of access to clean freshwater, and the undermining of traditional livelihoods. Despite these risks, Chile’s institutional framework offers no binding mechanisms for community participation, leaving them in a deeply asymmetric struggle against corporate and state power.
About the community-led struggle
In response, ACUE and allied communities have pursued multiple avenues of resistance. They have submitted administrative and judicial challenges, filed complaints before Chile’s environmental regulator, and organized public demonstrations to raise awareness. At the same time, they have worked to build solidarity, at both the national an international level, by collaborating with NGOs, Indigenous groups, and networks across territories. Through media advocacy and community education initiatives, they have helped shift public debate on the social and ecological costs of salmon farming.
Community organizing has become central in their resistance. By holding workshops, creating educational materials, and working with schools and local organizations, ACUE is ensuring that knowledge about the risks of industrial aquaculture circulates broadly. Their struggle seeks to expose salmon farming as a human rights issue, transforming what has long been treated as an economic or technical debate into a political and ethical battle over the future of Patagonia.
Further resources
- Salmonicultura, una industria incompatible en áreas protegidas (Desconcierto, 2022)
- Podcast: «Resistencia Comunitaria frente a la salmonicultura en Magallanes«