Public or private?: Challenges for the protection of urban and periurban wetlands in Valdivia posed by the regulation on natural watercourses

The systematic intervention and destruction of urban and periurban wet-lands in Valdivia with the purpose of urban expansion is a trend that has been observed, at least, since the mid 1980’s. Such phenomenon has increased over the past 15 years. The search for instruments to protect the wetlands has driven the citizens to use various kinds of legal strategies, including complaints to different public services, seeking control, monitoring and measures. One strategy applied in cases of wetlands’s destruction has been to lodge complaints with the General Water Authority (Dirección General de Aguas) and the Directorate-General of Water Projects (Dirección de Obras Hidráulicas) due to modifica-tion of watercourses, in accordance with the competences of such services concerning wa-tercourses and water. Nevertheless, the regulation on natural watercourses has proven to be limited to protect these ecosystems, mainly because of the piecemeal approach that the legal framework promotes, which distinguishes between water and soil.