SANTIAGO, Dec 2 (Tierramérica) - The Chilean government wants the inauguration of the future international airport in the Araucanía region to mark the country's bicentennial in 2010. But some 500 Mapuche families oppose construction of the terminal because of potential social and environmental harm.

On Nov. 15 the governmental Regional Environmental Commission (COREMA) of Araucanía approved -- with 12 votes in favour, four against (cast by the community delegates) and one abstention -- the environmental impact study for the airport that is to be built in the southern city of Freire.

In 2007 the plan is to expropriate 495 hectares in the town of Huilquilco and hold an international bidding process for construction. Work would begin in 2008, and is slated for completion in 2010. On Sep. 18, 2010, Chile will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the country's independence from Spain, and the airport would be one of the main "bicentennial works" initiated by the previous administration, of Ricardo Lagos, and carried through by the government of Michelle Bachelet.

"This project is intended to provide the Araucianía region with an airport of international standing, generating equitability in the country's development," Marco Antonio Vásquez, regional secretary of public works, told Tierramérica.

The new air terminal, which would replace the Maquehue airport -- more than 20 km away --, is to include a 5,000-square-metre building and a runway 2,440 metres long, expandable to 3,200 metres. Private investment is estimated at 50 million dollars.

According to Vásquez, passenger demand will significantly increase before 2010, and Maquehue, whose runway is 1,700 metres long, cannot be improved to meet the need. In addition to hills and being affected by fog, an extension of the runway would mean expropriating land from the Mapuches, the country's largest indigenous group.

Araucanía, Chile's 9th region, 600 km south of Santiago, is home to 23.5 percent of the 604,349 Mapuches in the country.

The site chosen for the new airport is just 15 km from the regional capital, Temuco, is near the area's major highway, and the 12 families who own the land are not members of that indigenous group.

Nevertheless, eight Mapuche communities -- of the 23 near the future airport -- formed the group Ayún Mapu (Joyful Land, in the Mapuzungun language) to coordinate opposition to the draft project presented by the government.

They refuse to be subjected to the noise pollution and emissions from the airplanes, and they believe the approved environmental impact study did not include all of the tests necessary to assess the project's real economic, social and cultural impacts.

"COREMA voted for the environmental impact study of the initial project, which lacks hydro-geological, acoustic, soil and water analyses," Ayún Mapu spokesman Richard Caifal told Tierramérica.

The mayor of Freire, María Gricelda Campos, agrees. "I asked the intendent of the 9th region (Eduardo Klein) directly why there was a draft project and not a full project, and he said that the airport would be built with or without them," she told Tierramérica.

But Vásquez said the environmental impact study includes all the required analyses and that the company that wins the bidding process will have to draw up the definitive plan. The airport will have to be certified according to ISO 14.001 standards and the concession-holder will assume all liability for possible damages.

There will be no economic compensation, but rather an "integrated territorial development plan in the airport's zone of influence," where -- regardless of what the concession-holder does -- all public services will be made available to the 5,000 people who live in the 23 communities, who live an average of 1,500 metres from the site of the air terminal.

According to the mayor of Freire, a town of 8,000 people, the airport will cause the Pelales marsh to flood, will hurt the farmers who raise beef cattle and dairy cows -- "which will be forced off their organic pastures" -- and will leave a hundred families without work or housing.

"The Mapuches will have to conduct their religious ceremonies with airplanes flying overhead," said Mayor Campos. In addition, four months ago the Fermín Manquilef community began to apply for titles of ownership in the area.

Campos exhorted officials to reform the 1994 general law on the environment, which allows the government to be "judge and party" to the economic impact studies. "We proposed four other sites in Freire where the airport wouldn't generate these problems, but they opted for the most economical," said the mayor.

Ayún Mapu will present a petition against the COREMA decision, a stay for protection with the Chilean courts, and another with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

They are hesitant to announce more radical measures. "The communities are intimidated, since any demonstration by Mapuches is categorised as a terrorist act," said Ayún Mapu's Caifal.