Chile's Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) has suspended its approval process for an electricity project in the Maule region after actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio called for the protection of the Pehuenche frog, whose habitat is threatened by the project.
The Los Cóndores-Río Diamante project calls for a high-voltage transmission line to connect the electricity systems of Chile and Argentina and enable energy exchanges between the two countries. DiCaprio raised the alarm on social media, noting that fewer than a thousand individuals of the spiny-breasted frog (Alsodes pehuenche), which lives exclusively in the Pehuenche Valley in the Andes between Chile and Argentina, remain in the wild. According to the actor, the project risks pushing the critically endangered species "to the brink of extinction."
The project began five years ago and will also be evaluated separately by the Argentine authorities. Enel Chile, the initiative's promoter, has assured that it has analyzed the environmental aspects and is ready to cooperate with the authorities.
(Unioneonline)
