| dc.description | The following study focuses on small farmers living in the Mediterranean region of Central Chile, specifically in the so-called Secano Interior of the Biobio administrative region. This region has been proclaimed as one of the most successful cases of forest plantation expansion, a model characterized by high revenues and diverse associated benefits (Lara and Veblen, 1993; Miller, 2014; FAO, 2010) where the establishment of forest companies and their respective plantations has been encouraged, especially around small towns and rural communities with high levels of socioeconomic vulnerability (Contreras, 1988).
However, local actors, including individuals, families, NGOs, neighborhood councils, among others, argue that the socio-cultural, economic and environmental implications of plantations’ expansion go far beyond the macro-economic figures provided by the Chilean Timber Corporation (CORMA) and other institutional reports. These issues include land grabbing, social and territorial isolation, loss of biodiversity, changes in the landscape, increase in wildfires, water scarcity, rural-urban migration growth, and traditional agriculture loss.
Using landscape perception test, social network analysis and semi-structured interviews this research examines factors and implications associated with the social dimension and subjectivities affected in these rural households. It also focuses on a wide sample of rural configurations in the Mediterranean region of Chile, encompassing the diversity of socioeconomic and ecological realities found in the region. The objective behind this is to compare socio-environmental scenarios with diverse levels of plantation dispersion and magnitude, although sharing same macro ecological, cultural and economic characteristics. At its core, this research assesses the sociocultural dimension of monoculture plantations’ expansion, focusing on livelihood elements such as social structures, knowledge, adaptation strategies and landscape perceptions of small farmers’ households inhabiting the region.
The results show a transversal agreement about which landscapes are considered more and less ideal for local producers having industrial forest plantations as the most rejected choice and production diversity as the most approved. Also, social networks shows how the level of encroachment due to forest plantations is associated with certain trends in networks metrics and attributes. Finally, ethnographic narratives show how respondent’s socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities are linked to the establishment and expansion of local monoculture forest plantations. | |
