From crisis to stability and back again: the fragility of environmental governance in the Chilean salmon industry

ABSTRACT In the last two decades, the 2008 Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus and the 2016 algal blooms crises have placed the Chilean salmon industry at risk and tested the capacity of its governance mechanisms to solve environmental and economic contradictions and ensure the industry’s continuity and its sustainability. Although in the 2008 crisis the state redefined mechanisms of property, control and access to natural resources to strengthen the resilience of the salmon industry, the lessons learned by the system and the community between one crisis and the next were not enough to avoid a new crisis. Chile’s existing governance mechanisms are reactive and not proactive and, therefore, their capacity to lead the industry towards long-term sustainable practices is flawed.