Maria Isabel Urrutia

Chilean environmental lawyer who pioneered legal frameworks to protect glaciers and biodiversity

Maria Isabel Urrutia is a Chilean environmental lawyer and activist whose groundbreaking work has fundamentally altered the country's approach to environmental protection. In the early 2010s, she successfully lobbied for Chile's first glacier protection law, which became a model for similar legislation across Latin America. Her advocacy led to the creation of the National Glacier Inventory, marking a paradigm shift in how these critical ecosystems are legally recognized.

Urrutia's work extends beyond legislation to community engagement. She co-founded the NGO 'Defendamos los Glaciares' (Website), which trains indigenous communities in legal strategies to combat mining projects threatening their territories. Her 2018 victory stopping the Pascua Lama gold mine set a precedent for corporate accountability in environmental cases.

She has also pioneered biodiversity protection strategies in the Patagonian region, developing innovative legal frameworks that incorporate indigenous knowledge systems. Her 2020 publication 'Chile's Glacial Revolution: Law Meets Ecology' details these strategies. Urrutia's transnational collaborations with organizations like the Andean Glacier Inventory Project (IGP) have created replicable models for climate change adaptation.