Taking time to reflect on the sea

More than five thousand people enjoyed the activities of Puerto de Ideas Biobio Festival 2022, held in late August for the first time in the Center-South area of Chile.

The event was an invitation to think about oceans, biodiversity, and nature and included conferences, dialogues and shows with leading thinkers and researchers who addressed different perspectives from the relationship between humility and nature.

BHP Foundation gave special support to the first Sea Film Festival, which received more than a thousand submissions from America, Asia, Africa and Europe. The documentary "Stolen Fish" was chosen as the winner. Directed by Polish director Gosia Juszczak, the film denounces the effects of the overexploitation of marine ecosystems in The Gambia, the smallest country in continental Africa.

With community environmental resilience as one of the pillars of the BHP Foundation’s work in Chile, the Foundation’s Chile Program is now starting a new project that will focus on semi-industrial coastal fishing, supported the Puerto de Ideas Biobío festival, with the sea as its main subject.

“This festival invites us to remember the value of caring for our seas, the fish, and the algae, and our 467 semi-industrial coastal fisheries and coastal communities, that depend on marine resources,” said Alejandra Garces, Director of the BHP Foundation Chile Program.

“Watching these documentaries not only makes us know more about the oceans; they are also an invitation to love them and take better care of them. Something that, for a country with more than 37 thousand miles of coast, should be a priority.”

Puerto de Ideas Biobío was made possible thanks to the support of the University of Concepción, and was presented by the Regional Government of Biobío, BHP Foundation and Empresas CMPC.