Viña del Mar: United for Viña - Participatory disaster risk management and care for the environment

The practice of participatory risk co-management, which includes training, dissemination and collaborative work with members of the Viña del Mar community, specifically that which is linked to territories in which, at different times of the year, work must be carried out on: cleaning of sand traps, repair and fitting of firebreaks and weeding, aims to integrate citizen participation, involving different actors from the Viña del Mar community, in work that historically carried out by the technical units of the Municipality of Viña del Mar, with the aim of taking concrete actions to prevent situations of risk for the community.

However, many of these activities have meant or mean intervening in natural areas that are protected by the community, and it is important to integrate them into the different stages of the work and to ensure that the actions are implemented correctly and carried out in a way that is harmonious and respectful of the environment, thus moving to a new working model where we can all take care of the environment and prevent risks to people.

In the specific case of weeding, the last two fires in the municipality highlighted the urgent need to implement measures to support the cleaning unit, to carry out weeding operations in a greater number of sectors, seeking to cover a larger area by the end of the season between October and January each year. Actions were therefore implemented to carry out “participatory weeding” where the community in the area to get involved, volunteers from universities or other institutions such as scouts and municipal officials to work collaboratively, from planning the day to its execution, in order to prevent the risk of forest fires in the commune or at least mitigate their advance, if any.

In short, the practice consists of involving the community in disaster risk prevention work, helping to raise awareness of the responsibility we all have in caring for the territory, working collaboratively between civil society and public institutions, planning based on the community's knowledge of its territory, generating spaces for work, meeting and dialogue between the different actors who inhabit the commune.

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