Implementation of the Antarctic Environmental Protocol by Chile: History, Legislation and Practice

Abstract

Several unique circumstances have influenced the national history of Chile as related to the Antarctic. Situated closest to Antarctica, Chile has been stressed by chroniclers and poets of the like of Alonso de Ercilla, who rendered the country as ‘a notable and fertile province of the famous Antarctic region’ (‘fértil provincia y señalada de la región antártica famosa’, La Araucana, 1556). The governors of Chile during Colonial times were concurrently the governors of Terra Australis. The first real Antarctic navigation by Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 and the discovery of the Shetland Islands by William Smith in 1819 were achieved in ships sailing from the Chilean port of Valparaíso; and it was in the neighbourhood of that port that John Miers drew the first Antarctic chart.

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The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance and advice of Ambassador Jorge Berguño, Deputy Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute, in the preparation of this chapter.