This paper addresses the legal nature and effects of environmental pertinence declarations in the Chilean Environmental Assessment System. The mainstream opinion asserts that these declarations are non-binding decisions. The paper argues that these instruments have an important role in the administration of the SEIA, which should lead to the recognition of their having a relative binding effect. It proposes, drawing from a responsive regulation approach, a reinterpretation of the legal norms that establish the powers of the Chilean Environmental Evaluation Service and the Chilean Superintendency of the Environment in order to harmonize the relative bindiness of the pertinence declarations with the inspection powers of the Environmental Surveillance Agency.