Robinson Crusoe Island: A Marine Conservation Model Threatened by Chile’s Far-Right

Robinson Crusoe, Juan Fernandez archipelago (Chile), report

Dawn breaks over Robinson Crusoe, one of the three islets of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, located 700 km off the Chilean coast. This archipelago is home to the village of San Juan Bautista, the only one inhabited year-round by about a thousand residents. At the small jetty, artisanal fishermen prepare for a long day at sea. “ We leave at dawn and return after sunset ”, remarks Hector, captain of one of the 80 boats authorized to fish in the archipelago’s protected waters.

Along with Ramon and Patricio, his two mates, the thirty-something fisherman sets off for the uninhabited islet of Santa Clara. Like most islanders, he grew up learning about the unique biodiversity of his ocean. “ In the waters of the archipelago, over 90 % of the species are endemic ”, he notes, hidden behind his dark sunglasses.

The island community, closely-knit and committed to preserving its biodiversity gem, has managed to establish a marine protected area that they now hope to expand. However, this project has been put on hold by Chile’s new far-right government, which took office in March.

“ Today, we’re heading out to mainly fish for Bacalao, Vidriola, and Breca. Later in the day, we’ll retrieve the wooden traps we’ve made ourselves to catch octopuses and lobsters ”, he adds as he starts the engine.

The lobster, a flagship product of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, is subject to several regulatory measures that the islanders have imposed on themselves for decades. Patricio, the youngest crew member, explains that the fishermen only keep lobsters that are 11.5 cm in carapace length. They release those that do not meet the size requirement, those with eggs, and they do not fish for lobster from May to October.

“ We inherited our environmental consciousness from our ancestors ”, explains Hector. Specifically, from the last colony of Swiss origin that settled on Robinson Crusoe Island in 1877. “ We have evolved the regulatory measures we inherited and today, we try to apply them to all our fishery resources ”, he concludes.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes of navigation, the three fishermen stop off the coast of Santa Clara Island. While Patricio cuts some pieces of royal mackerel (sierra) for bait, his colleague Ramon attaches about twenty hooks to long lines weighted down by a stone. “ This is the longline method, he proudly remarks. We’ll set several lines in the area and pull them up throughout the day. ”

While filleting a fish, Patricio recalls that as a teenager, twenty years ago, he saw large fishing boats sweeping the ocean floor on the horizon. “ But that’s over. Net fishing is banned in Juan Fernandez, he explains. It’s the only way to protect the resources for future generations. ”

In the public square of the village of San Juan Bautista, nestled in a small valley surrounded by volcanic mountains and accessible only by boat, Julio Chamorro, president of the (OCF), enters his office located in a small wooden shack. “ We have the ocean with the highest biomass rate in the world, so we have a duty to protect it ”, he states, pointing to the large maritime maps of the islands where he grew up on the wall.

The son of a fisherman and an engineer, Julio explains that the ocean has always been the engine for the archipelago’s food and economic self-sufficiency. He shares that each generation of islanders has worked to take care of the ocean, “ from the first fishing regulations ” at the end of the 19th^th century “ to the creation of the marine park in 2018 and obtaining the UN biosphere reserve label in 1977 ”.

In the last fifteen years, several scientific expeditions (including National Geographic’s Pristine Seas program and Oceana Chile) have cataloged a marine biodiversity unique in the world. These have provided a solid scientific base for the islanders to request the Chilean government’s protection of their ocean.

“ Today, we have the two largest marine parks in South America, the Juan Fernandez archipelago and the Nazca-Desventuradas islands, explains Julio Chamorro. And the goal is to connect them ” to create a conservation corridor in the South Pacific.

With the entry into force of the United Nations Treaty on the high seas (BBNJ) ratified by 80 countries on January 17, this ambitious project, conceived since 2008 by the residents of Robinson Crusoe, has become a reality.

In March, the dream was realized. A few days before the end of the term of progressive President Gabriel Boric (2022-2026), several environmental decrees officially extended the marine parks of the Juan Fernández Sea and the Nazca-Desventuradas Islands. This increased the total area of Chile’s marine protected zones to 947,000 km², making the country the third in the world with the largest oceanic protected area.

However, this was before the current far-right President José Antonio Kast, barely in office since March 11, suspended the decrees before they could be published by the Contraloría, an autonomous state body that verifies, among other things, that the adopted decrees comply with the Constitution and laws.

The residents of Robinson Crusoe Island immediately expressed their discontent and demanded action. Jaritza Rivadeneira Muena, a municipal councilor and president of the environmental commission at the island’s town hall, points out that in their history, “ a decree has never been blocked at the last step, namely at the time of its implementation ”.

Three months after the suspension of the decrees, “ the executive power has still not presented the arguments that justify this decision, explains Jaritza Rivadeneira Muena. However, if we want to respect the democratic order, it is fundamental to understand the reasons behind this decision ”, she believes.

This anthropologist, daughter of a fisherman, also considers that the creation of the network of marine protected areas is motivated not only by economic aspects but also by a traditional fishing practice that sets an example for the rest of the world.

She recalls that the fishermen of Juan Fernandez have demonstrated before several international bodies, like at the Ocean Summit in Nice in 2025, that in Robinson Crusoe, fishing has been responsible for more than a century. “ We have long understood, she insists, that marine resources and species are not inexhaustible. They are limited and depend on the practices of fishermen and public policies to endure. ”

According to Jaritza Rivadeneira Muena, the decision of the far-right government to suspend the decrees creating the network of marine protected areas “ somewhat minimizes climate change, the global food crisis, and biodiversity loss ”. She is concerned that today, many right-wing and far-right governments tend to deny the threats to life, both on land and in the oceans.