Chile's 'Green Gold' - Providing Value for All? An Investigation of the Chilean Forestry Conflict through an Ecosystem Services Lens

Abstract

The Chilean forestry sector is acknowledged for the economic benefits it has spawned over decades. At the same time, it also sets the scene for a historical conflict playing out between the state, forestry firms, and the Mapuche, who originally inhabited the regions where exotic monoculture tree plantations continue to expand. This expansion has deprived the Mapuche of their enshrined lands while leading to the increasing replacement of native forests with monocultures. Thereby, it alters forest ecosystems that supply neighboring communities with a range of ecosystem services (ESs) they depend on for their wellbeing and livelihoods. Although this conflict has been assessed from different theoretical backgrounds, the perspective of ESs has largely been overlooked in this context. Therefore, we adopt an ESs lens in investigating the forestry conflict in this thesis. Developing and applying an actor-centered approach, we aim to further the academic debate by facilitating a holistic understanding of the situation. The findings are based on qualitative data collected through fieldwork in southern Chile, encompassing semi-structured and informal interviews with local stakeholder groups. In analyzing the data collected, we draw upon well-established concepts emerging from ESs classifications, valuations, and tradeoffs. Through this approach, we reveal different preference patterns stakeholders hold when evaluating forest ESs. We find that divergences in these preferences give rise to distinct perceptions of the tradeoff between the ESs provided by native forests as opposed to those offered by tree plantations. The investigation of this tradeoff along the spatial, temporal, and reversibility dimensions reveals past and present external factors hampering conflict resolution. Based on our findings, we argue that our work expands different ESs theories by combining them into a holistic framework that can be used to analyze ecological conflicts involving indigenous groups in other geographies.