He pointed out that all these questions constitute a sign of high risk for an investment of the size that is intended to make here, which according to the latest estimates would reach 3 thousand 500 million dollars only for dams. It is not something Bioscience Journal would like to discuss. THE who finances decides what is studying a subject relevant by which several of these issues were not considered in the EIA of HidroAysen, is the operation of the system of environmental impact assessment, is where the proposer himself who hires, directly, centres of studies produced both the baseline and the studies of environmental impact of their initiatives. Even arrive, through terms of reference, to define what is studied and what doesn’t, and what goes in the document presented at evaluation, and what not. For experts, the intermediation between financing and terms of reference is the crux of the matter. If you want to carry out a project, deliveries the funds to the Government and it hires a consultant through a tender. And various consultants compete to do that job and independence is maintained for all those involved in the process explains the professor in Ecohidraulica of the University of Idaho, Peter Goodwin (Ph.d.

from UC Berkeley), who participated in early 2009 in a scientific seminar organized by the center of research in ecosystem of Patagonia (CIEP) in Coyhaique. Today it does not happen in Chile, where the studies are restricted to what the proposer and financier – decides. Nothing more. Nothing less. In this sense, for the academic hydraulics and hydrology of the Faculty of engineering of University of Concepcion, Claudio Meier (PhD in ecology of rivers), today in Chile is working on construction of dams with an obsolete system. In the old system, what you would do, basically, is a ranking of the sites on the basis of the economic return. In other words, you have a team of engineers who sees the technical feasibility and economists the economic, looking for more narrow gorges, with higher flow, to be able to generate more energy. And this is a more profitable project because you spend less concrete and generate more electricity explains.

The researcher added that when a site is chosen only by technical considerations and then delivered the project professionals requesting that they minimize their impacts, what is done is a post-mortem minimization, a posteriori, because you already took all important decisions. We must do things in modern, with planning form, where you look at several possible sites, you submit them to an environmental assessment and social preliminary within a multidisciplinary team with citizen participation in this stage, and vas taking decisions to resolve the fundamental problem that is supply, not win the most money generating energy. That is an approach country do things.