FIMA

Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) is a non-profit organization and the oldest public environmental law firm in Chile. Since 1998, we have sought to be an active agent in seeking access to environmental justice for all and developing environmental law, policy, and legislation. FIMA has focused its work on five areas: environmental justice, climate change, biodiversity protection, access to water, and marine conservation. According to these areas, our mission is to ensure individuals and communities equitable access to the right to a healthy environment. Also, to promote the right of access to information, public participation, and environmental justice. We channel our work into four lines of action: legal empowerment and capacity building, dissemination and advocacy, research, and litigation.

The department involved in the project is the research department. The group is composed of 6 young researchers, most of them lawyers. Until 2021, the group focused its research mostly on legal research, such as comparative law, case law, regulatory analysis, among others. After 2021, the department broadened its scope, incorporating a more social science based approach. Within this approach, it has studied the experience of communities that live in places served by desalted water, communities living in protected areas but which also have the highly pollutant salmon industry. It also makes theoretical work on ecological economics, natural capital, ecosystem service, among others.

Team Expertise: Legal and Political Philosophy Public and International Law Socio-Ecology

Principal investigator:

  • Ezio Costa