Negotiating Water Rights in Patagonia: Hydropower and Environmental Flows.

Increasing national and international pressures for hydroelectric power development and for ecosystem protection are presently on a collision course in Chilean Patagonia, in the southernmost region of South America. In this paper I summarize the emerging issues of negotiating water rights in Patagonia and their relationship to regulatory governance in both the water and energy sectors. The goal of the paper is to improve public understanding and debate about hydropower development in Chilean Patagonia and strengthen the work of Chilean and international NGOs in this area. I will, first, provide a comprehensive analysis of the major legal and policy issues affecting hydropower in Chile, linking together the three critical sectors of water, electricity, and environmental laws and regulations. Second, I seek to identify the most promising new strategies and opportunities for moving forward with in-stream flow protection and sustainable management of rivers in Patagonia and other parts of southern Chile, within the current Chilean legal framework. Third, I will make policy recommendations to improve the governance of water resources and river basins, including the rules for managing hydropower in the context of the Chilean electric sector. Finally, the paper as a whole aims to improve NGOs' ability to participate effectively in technical policy debates, governmental regulatory processes, and stakeholder negotiations involving hydropower in all three critical sectors - water, energy, and environment - and their areas of intersection. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]