International Programs
EPA Programs in Chile
The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement entered into force in January 2004. Recognizing the importance of protecting the environment while promoting sustainable development, the Governments negotiated an associated Environmental Cooperation Agreement, which is the basis for our environmental cooperation. As a global partner in trade and the environment, Chile is a priority country for U.S. environmental cooperation.
Explore our work with Chile:
Highlights
- January 2013: EPA and a U.S. environmental education expert delivered a workshop in Santiago, Chile, to 20 participants, including local and regional representatives from the Ministries of Environment and Forestry. Designed to give students the tools to investigate and evaluate environmental issues in their communities, the course builds the capacity of teachers to use outdoor settings to help students understand and take action on local environmental issues. An article and video from the workshop
are available at the Ministry of Environment's website. You can also see a video of the instructors (Spanish). - December 2011: A group of U.S. experts from EPA and the Department of Justice delivered a workshop for Chilean Supreme Court judges. The workshop shared the U.S. experience enforcing environmental cases and assessing environmental penalties, and the role of the U.S. judiciary in environmental protection.
- October 2011: EPA staff delivered a course on Conducting Environmental Compliance Inspections to inspectors from the Environment Superintendency (Superintendencia del Medioambiente) and other Chilean Ministries to help them improve their abilities to conduct and document inspections, leading to better enforcement and improved environmental compliance. The course took place in the Chilean city of Puerto Montt.
- August 2011: EPA staff and U.S. environmental education experts lead a workshop in Olmué, Chile to exchange information on formal and informal environmental education programs in each country, and to develop a proposal for a pilot project in Chile. Participants included representatives of government environment and education entities, and private environmental education programs.
Activities
Environmental Governance:
Environmental education workshop in Olmué, Chile, August 2011.
EPA works with a variety of Chilean Agencies, such as the Environment Superintendency (Superintendencia del Medioambiente and the Judicial Academy (Academia Judicial de Chile), to strengthen environmental enforcement and compliance of environmental laws and regulations. Activities include:
- Development of Curricula for Judges on Adjudicating Environmental Enforcement Cases
- Training the Environment Superintendency (Superintendencia del Medioambiente- SMA) inspectors on Inspection and Enforcement
- Technical Consultation and Assistance on a variety of environmental enforcement issues as needed
Mining:
To strengthen institutional capacity in the institutions that govern the mining sector, EPA will build the capacity of Chile’s Ministries of Mining (Ministerio de Minería) and Environment (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente) with a variety of collaborative workshops and information exchanges.
Specific efforts will aim to increase the Chilean government institutions’ capacity to manage mechanisms for financial assurance at operating mines.
Public Participation:
To increase environmental public participation in decision-making, EPA will partner with the Chilean Ministry of Environment and other Agencies such as the Environmental Evaluation Service (Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental) to build the capacity of Chile’s government institutions in this area.
This will include delivering public participation workshops to foster public participation and enhanced government outreach, and exchange best practices.
Environmental Education:
Field visit (and mock inspection) at a salmon facility in Pargua, Chile, at end of inspections workshop in October 2011.
To enhance educator knowledge of environmental issues and improve teaching skills in formal and informal programs, EPA is partnering with the Chilean Ministry of Environment to exchange best practices.
This work will be accomplished through a workshop with Chile’s government agencies and non-government institutions to exchange best practices, and a pilot project for effective learning and teaching about environmental issues.
Agreements and Relevant Documents
Key Partners
Learn More About Chile
Back to:Latin America and the Caribbean
Contacts
For additional information on EPA's work with Chile, contact:
Nadtya Hong
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of International and Tribal Affairs (2670R)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460
E-mail: hong.nadtya@epa.gov
(202) 564-6600