Residents of Plaza Italia, the traditional gathering place in Santiago for everything from football and election celebrations to protest marches, are having a bad time. The frequency of protests - some tiny, others massive - has increased sharply this year and, according to realtors, rents have dropped by 15 percent or more.

Los habitantes de Plaza Italia, el tradicional lugar de encuentro en Santiago para todo desde celebraciones de fútbol y elecciones hasta marchas de protesta, lo están pasando mal. La frecuencia de las protestas -algunas pequeñas, otras masivas- han aumentado de manera pronunciada este año y, según los corredores de propiedades, los arriendos han caído en un 15 por ciento o más.

El propuesto Servicio de Biodiversidad y Áreas Silvestres Protegidas (SBAP) es el primer proyecto importante de legislación ambiental del actual Gobierno desde que asumió el mando de la nación en marzo del 2010.

The proposed Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service is the government’s first major piece of environmental legislation since it took office in March 2010. But the bill has met with a barrage of criticism from NGOs, academics and environmental experts who say that while the new service is necessary, it fails to live up to its promise of integrating the management of public and private protected areas while also protecting biodiversity in the rest of the country.

No one questions the need for such a service.

The lush green expanses of southern Chile are deceptive. They may seem to stretch forever but Chile, a small country, is even smaller in terms of its agricultural land.

Take away the Atacama Desert of the north, and the fjords and icecaps of the far south and all that’s left for farming are some 15 million hectares (much the same as in New Zealand, a country a third of Chile’s size).