The Salmon industry and human rights in Chile: Sector-Wide Impact Assessment
This Sector-Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) is the first of its kind in Chile and has documented and analysed the adverse human rights impacts of the Chilean salmon industry on workers and local communities.
The assessment is a result of a multi-year partnership with the Chilean National Human Rights Institute (INDH Chile) established under the Sustainable Oceans project. The project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
While the assessment found that the salmon industry creates jobs and provides income to those working in the sector, several adverse impacts were also documented. These include salaries below living wage levels for workers in salmon hatcheries, precarious working conditions in salmon farms and processing plants, health and safety risks and impacts, especially among divers, female workers and migrant workers.
The field work conducted further documented widespread impacts on indigenous peoples. These ranged from destruction of sacred sites, lack of consultation and participation in matters that may affect them, occupation of their territories by the salmon industry, and contamination of their resources.
The report concludes with a series of recommendations, intended to encourage a switch to responsible business conduct in the Chilean salmon industry. The recommendations are mainly addressed to the Chilean government and Chilean salmon businesses, but also to foreign governments and salmon companies from countries such as Norway, Japan and China operating in Chile.
The assessment seeks to contribute to building a platform for dialogue how Chile’s salmon industry can be shaped in such a way that the future development of the sector is not only economically viable, but is also respectful of human rights, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable.
Below, you can download the full report and executive summary in English, find a link to the full report in Spanish as well as links to related reports developed and hosted by our partners, and watch an animated video explaining the key findings and recommendations from the SWIA.
The video below is a recording from the online launch of the report, held on November 24 2021.
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