Aguantaste Patagonia! Chao HidroAysén!

This is not by any means the end of the movement and campaign to protect Patagonia, it is but one more important step towards a sustainable Aysén Reserva de Vida, but this is without question one of the biggest days in the history of Chile, and a tremendous marker in the global movement for environmental justice and ecological sanity. The HidroAysén project, the subject of a solid handful of posts on this blog, and because of the work in Patagaonia really one of the catalysts to why this vozsilvestre blog was ever started, has been rejected by the Chilean government of Michele Bachelet. The government of Bachelet has just this morning rejected the 2011 approval of permits to build 5 dams on the Ríos Pascua and Baker.

Patagonia Sin Represas! #Chao HidroAysén!

In 2008 a group of us from International Rivers ventured to gather a group of adventurers and activists and journalists to traverse the Pascua River watershed. We would prove to be only the third expedition to travel by foot through this remote and wild river valley that pours off of the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap, and what we saw was one of the most amazing and wild corners of Patagonia and Planet Earth, threatened by three massive dams, with two more dams included in the project on the spectacular Río Baker.

It is one of the wildest and most pristine places I have been to in this life, on a planet that is rapidly losing wild places to industry and progress, GRACIAS A TOD@S por tanto compromiso, valor, dedicación, y fuerza. Chao HidroAysén! Aguantaste Patagonia!

See this slide show of images from our 2008 expedition in the Pascua to get a feel for what we have protected!

This is a great day for Patagonia, and por nuestra Wild América! A beautiful day!

This blog was started in December 2007 as I started working officially for International Rivers for the campaign launch in Chile and to pull together and pull off this crazy idea of an expedition to see and know and document the Pascua area, as the HidroAysén mega-project was getting very strong momentum from the government boosters and transnational investors, and the clear threat of dams to Patagonia was looming like a dark cloud on the horizon. The idea of the expedition to the Pascua was to get journalists to meet with Chilean and Patagonian activists right literally at ground zero for this massive dam project. From there on out it was a crazy ride! The expedition was a success and the campaign launch put the worlds eyes on this nefarious mega-dam project. Against all odds the campaign has resisted the irregular proceedings of environmental review. In May 2011 the dams of the project were approved, but thousands of people went into the street and from that moment forth it was apparent that Chile had decided that they as a people wanted their Ríos Libres y sus Comunidades Vivas - queremos una Patagonia Sin Represas!

Chao Pescado

There are other chapters of my life coming to a close now too, and this victory puts it all into perspective. We as humans are capable of amazing grassroots campaigns and movements that can shape our future and that of our children. We are capable of organizing political expressions of our commonly held objectives and beliefs that can effectively confront the vested money interests of extractive industry and the groveling political class that serves them in their planet killing agenda. The important thing is to think big and not succumb to the petty maneuverings of the ambitious -- and get out of there fast once it becomes clear that a groups compass has been lost. Keep flowing, keep moving, keep your vision and values intact, don't get dragged down into the mire of The Millenium Curse. This rejection of HidroAysén comes at a symbolic moment for me in my trajectory as a political participant in our crazed reality. I am also saying Chao EPIC at this juncture of my life, after just more than 3 years as executive director and more than 7 years of intensive involvement, including time as a board member before being invited to work as staff. It became very clear that it was time for me to move on, I did what I could with what I had a chance to work with, and being even just a small part in this victory in Chile only reminds me of the great work that I have ahead of me. Even as things at EPIC may have been left unfinished by my standards, it was clear that my skills are to be best applied in other projects. Flow like a river, stand firm like a mountain. Onwards, it is a new day and a new chapter.

And best of all? Chao HidroAysén!