The Political Ecology of Tree Plantations and Indigenous People in Chile: Will Indigenous Forest Commons Survive the Pressure of Neoliberal State Policies?

Abstract

"This paper focuses on the effect of state intervention and globalization on the remaining native forests that are commonly owned by indigenous people in Chile. The current forest development model in Chile, has given rise to conflicting interests between indigenous communities and forest companies which have been actively supported by governmental policies. Despite efforts made since democracy was reinstated in 1990, the core governmental policy has been an ill-defined land restitution program combined with monetary compensations, which are used to abate conflict. Amongst those Mapuche who resist this strategy, there is evidence of, instead, sustained (often violent) police and legal actions, particularly when Mapuche individuals and organizations actively oppose the occupation of their ancestral lands by large farm and forest owners. At the same time, the Chilean government has established a strategic plan which aims to incorporate forest activities in the production system of small forest owners.

"Given this context, the question remains: Will indigenous forest commons survive the pressure of neoliberal state policies? Employing Foucault's notion of governmentality, it is argued that, while the Mapuche have widely contested the state's neoliberal policies, they have nevertheless been drawn into a new set of governing strategies that are fundamentally neoliberal in character, which encourages the plantation of exotic species (pine and eucalyptus) and very often substitution of native forests. These strategies have led to the reconfiguration of their relationship with the state, NGOs, and foreign aid donors. Operating at both formal and informal levels of social and political interaction, this new mentality of government employs coercive and co-optive measures to cultivate Mapuche participation in the neoliberal modernization project, while continuing to neglect the longstanding relations of inequality and injustice that underlie conflicts over land and resources."