Peasant economies, forestry industry and fires: socio-natural instabilities and agriculture as means of resistance

Abstract

The recurrence of fires in Chilean monoculture forestry raises a number of questions about the socio-natural stability of mono-exporting economies. This article problematizes the territorial relationship between forestry industry -heavily subsidized- and peasant agriculture -historically marginalized-, revealing coexistence and stabilization difficulties and problems to reach a socio-natural assemblage respecting and including the needs of human and non-human actors.

Data-based wildfire risk model for Mediterranean ecosystems – case study of the Concepción metropolitan area in central Chile

“…Available studies suggest that wildfires will become more frequent and aggressive, given the changing climate conditions in the CMA (Castillo et al, 2003;CONAF, 2017CONAF, , 2018Sarricolea et al, 2020;CR2, 2020) following global trends (Moritz et al, 2012). One of those changes is related to more frequent droughts (Fernández et al, 2018), which are coincident with recent findings that attribute part of precipitation decrease to anthropogenic sources (Boisier et al, 2016), impacting the lives, crops, and neighborhoods of more than a million people (Gómez-González et al, 2018;de la Barrera et al, 2018;CONAF, 2018;Araya-Muñoz et al, 2017;Cid, 2015).…”

“…1) is one of the most transformed in the country, with a long history of mining, industrialization, and forest exploitation (Bustamante and Varela, 2007;Aguayo et al, 2009). Here, intensive land use changes interact with the replacement of native land cover by plantations, urban sprawl, and socioenvironmental conflicts associated with forest property (Andersson et al, 2016;Nahuelhual et al, 2012;Altamirano et al, 2013;Heilmayr et al, 2016;McWethy et al, 2018;Cid, 2015;Schulz et al, 2010) that lead to a characteristic environment prone to wildfire occurrence.…”

Assembling Fairtrade: Practices of progress and conventionalization in the Chilean wine industry

“…Fairtrade wine producer (Herman, 2010, Herman, 2012, McEwan and Bek, 2009, Moseley, 2008, although recent work by Staricco (2015Staricco ( , 2016Staricco ( , 2017b) is highlighting the practices and experiences of certified agrochemical abuse with small producers increasingly excluded (Aguayo, 2015). Despite Chile s su ess i agro-exports more broadly (Aguayo and Latta, 2015), most wine grape producers are small-scale (Felzensztein, 2011) and finding it increasingly hard to compete in an industry monopolised by large multinationals; making a living is made more difficult by low and volatile grape prices.…”

“…In rural areas, the land reform initiated under the socialist Allende government in the 1970s has largely been erased by the actions of the Pinochet and subsequent regimes (Gallardo Fernandez, 2004;Murray, 2006), with the former also characterized by political repression, corruption, disappearances and torture, leaving social fractures that endured beyond the return of democracy in 1990. Interest in local governance and sustainable rural development was renewed during Chile's democratic transition (Fawaz-Yissi et al, 2012), but the rural economy remains dominated by monocultures, precarious employment and agrochemical abuse, with small producers increasingly excluded (Aguayo, 2015). Despite Chile's success in agro-exports more broadly (Aguayo and Latta, 2015), most wine grape producers are small-scale (Felzensztein, 2011) and finding it increasingly hard to compete in an industry monopolized by large multinationals; making a living is made more difficult by low and volatile grape prices.…”