We need each others as informed citizens, aware and active to respond to the effects of climate change
Francisca Cortés Solari, President of Filantropía Cortés Solari
The Cortés Solari family understands the generation of value and wealth from a multidimensional perspective, which means creating and promoting social, cultural, scientific and environmental value in our country.
This glance includes conservation and valuation of our tangible and intangible heritage, including Chile’s natural resources, as well as conservation, valuation and dissemination of our cultural, material and immaterial heritage.
At the same time, this philanthropic initiative promotes the development of a comprehensive education, which takes charge of social and cultural diversity, and the challenges faced by new generations.
From its beginning, the Cortés Solari philanthropic project, headed by its founder, Francisca Cortés Solari, is characterised by an innovative position, tending to create social value at the service of our country.
How and why did the idea of making philanthropic actions in Chile originate? What are your fields of interest and action?
This project was born more than 16 years ago, initially sponsored by my mother, Teresa, and her sisters, María Luisa and Liliana Solari Falabella, who supported the early establishment of Caserta Foundation, an institution established to promote outdoor education, with physical and sports dynamics, as well as a strong sense of life for young people.
Little by little, we designed educational and training programs, for both students, teachers and managers, as we realised that a real change in education requieres working with the entire educational community.
Over time, Caserta’s work was joined by MERI Foundation, which crystallised the family commitment to work on a private conservation model, which means, first of all, defining objects of conservation at reserves under threat of climate change. From then, we began to develop scientific lines of research that helped to have enough evidence to make decisions.
Environmental education
What is Chile’s level in terms of environmental education and what is your job in this issue?
In the country, there are many organisations of different sizes, using multiple methodologies to develop environmental education programs, which is always positive.
In our case, environmental education is a fundamental part of the Comprehensive Conservation Model we’ve implemented at our Elementary Reserves for 8 years. But it’s also a component we have developed at other territories at the service of communities, such as Tebinquinche Lagoon in San Pedro de Atacama.
Conservation must be at the service of communities, not backwards. This means, on one side, doing research on threatened species and, on the other one, developing environmental education programs that help make awareness, train and sensitise present and future generations about the challenges of our ecosystem.
We need each other as informed citizens, aware and active to respond to the effects of climate change, which are more visible in the world every day and urge us to make decisions and actions right now.
What is the balance or experience highlighted from the “Whales: Voices from Chilean Sea” exhibition?
For more than two years we were thinking, dreaming of an exhibition like this, that helped us raise awarness in communities about ecosystems in our Elementary Reserves.
We finally decided to expose and speak, from different languages, about the blue whale, an umbrella species in the marine ecosystem; this means that many other species found in the oceans depend on its survival. It’s also one of the main objects of conservation at the Melimoyu Elementary Reserve, found in Northern Patagonia.
For this exhibition, we decided to translate scientific research we’ve been doing for years into different formats that were understood by people of different generations and interests. The idea was to move the beauty of our ocean and the sensation of immensity to La Moneda Cultural Centre. Ultimately, it was about switching the look back to the sea and re-approprating our ocean.
It was a huge experience that made us very happy, not just for the 100.000 people who visited the exhibition, but for being able to develop a successful public-private partnership. The massive attendance revealed the interest of citizens for this type of themes that aren’t just important, but they make us aware of our habitat.
The exhibition also accounts for the need to shorten the gap between science and communities. In that sense, I highlight the huge work for awareness and environmental education done alongside the exhibition, with mediation exercises that allowed children to address it from an active and connected place.
Science, business and communities
What is left in our country for an effective dialogue between business, science and communities in order to reach common objectives like preserving our ecosystems?
For ourselves, philanthropy is the group of actions coming from private actors for public service. In that sense, the need to promote a virtuous triangle, that’s to say, partnerships between the government, civil society and private sector, are decisive at the time of making progress in an agenda for comprehensive conservation that helps counteract, for example, the effects of climate change.
When we talk about preserving, the first thing we need is research; this means, promoting and boosting scientific development of this issues in Chile. For this purpose, the rol of the State is essential at the time of promoting scientific and technologic development, which is what’s being seen today.
For their part, companies aren’t just creators of economic and financial values, but also creators of social welfare.
It’s definitely a challenge to incorporate R+D in industries with high environmental impact to make progress, in this way, towards higher levels of sustainability and lower CO₂ emissions. It’s a moment that requieres fluent dialogue between the parts, in order to increase the impact of deployed actions and make a wide consensus about it.
Protected wild areas
Do you agree with moving the management of protected wild areas to the Ministry of Environment? Does Chile need more protected marine areas?
We have a very large country, so rich in biodiversity, with landscapes not seen in other parts of the world that, at once, require protection. The State is the main conservationist in Chile, for its land extension, though it’s fundamental that private actors and civil society engage in this gigantic job, because conservation isn’t just protecting large land extensions from natural disasters, but it’s also concrete and active actions for their conservation from environmental, social, cultural and sustainable approaches.
In this sense, I find important to support all actions whose objective is to improve articulation and management of conservation areas.
Regarding the second point, I wish Chile could make progress towards more protected marine areas. The scientific world suggests a 30% of protected marine areas, so there’s a long road to go through, as environmental urgencies are higher each day.
What do you mean about ‘new philanthropic model’?
First of all, it’s important to specify that, from Filantropía Cortés Solari (FCS), we understand philanthropy as the group of actions coming from private actors for public service. I mark it because this concept is anyway scorned and used to talk about different things.
The enw philanthropic model is about giving philanthropy with higher degrees of professionalisation. We talk about a change of conscience, a new paradigm, more participative and sustainable societies.
So, that must also been reflected on philanthropy. This means evaluating the impact of our programs and bring evidence of transparency, at both decision making, funding and institutionality.
What the projects currently in portfolio, mid-term and long-term challenges?
Ufff, the agenda is getting very interesting at medium and long terms.
At Caserta, we have decided to work on developing comprehensive education in Chile, while at MERI, we seek to promote scientific development and environmental education, at the service of conservation.
Regarding current projects, MERI Foundation is, for example, working on five major themes from which scientists develop different lines of research.
Major themes are: fresh water, oceans, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and atmosphere. So, for example, on oceans, we have a line of research associated to acoustics from the blue whale, umbrella species and essential one in Patagonic and continental ecosystems, whose objective is making progress on georeferencing the species.
On the fresh water line, we have research associated to mercury levels in Patagonic rivers. On biodiversity, we have research about extremophile plants we’re doing in the Atacama desert.
At Caserta Foundation, we have very emblematic programs. From “Roads, Paths and Journey”, a program working on levels of self-esteem among school students, and up to the Cecrea program in Castro, an initiative from the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, which promotes a new way of understanding the scientific and cultural creative process, in which we participate by making part of the programming schedule and also with our line of cultural mediation. We also have a training school that certifies teachers and psychologists.
What is your vision on the tourism industry and what is the relation it should have with the environment and conservation?
I think there are many ways to understand tourism. I think it makes an alternative for sustainable development in conservation areas, always and when the focus, practices and land use are according to principles of respect. The important thing of everything is that well-made eco-tourism can be a huge cultural contribution and job opportunities for the local community.
What importance do you see on COP25 being held in Chile and how is Filantropía Cortés Solari going to participate in this convention?
COP25 in Chile is going to be a huge opportunity for our country, a territory with a huge biodiversity, very different lanscapes from north to south, to contribute to the necessary discussion to understand the urgency for tackling this phenomenon.
Chile is a thermometer and platform to measure climate change. We have everything to do it. In our case, Elementary Reserves are thought as platforms for studying climate change.
I think it’s important that, in this COP25, we must drive the idea this is about collective responsibility, so government, private sector and civil society must work together, in order to make sustainable solutions as a group.
At Filantropía Cortés Solari, we are available to the organisation so our scientific team can participate actively in this convention. Also, we’ve opened our Elementary Reserves as dialogue places into the nature.
We think there’s no time to wait.