Struggling for land and water: resistances to tree plantations in Southern Chile

Different strategies to contest forestry extractivism in Chile show the complexity of these conflicts, with an overlap of present and historical political issues at different levels.* Tree plantations: old and new forms of dispossession Tree plantations are monocultures of a single tree species, typically fast growing species such as eucalypts, poplars, acacias and pines, designed to supply external markets …

Organización popular y campesina frente a la minería en Chiapas

Los días 15 y 16 de Agosto se reunieron en Acocayagua cerca de 300 personas de la región Costa-Soconusco y del estado de Chiapas para compartir y discutir impactos y estrategias ante la actividad minera en sus territorios.  Cientos de campesinos, hombres y mujeres líderes de diversas comunidades y municipios de la región Costa-Soconusco de Chiapas …

“New Publication: Mining Conflicts in Latin America: Extraction, dispossession and violence. State of the art for 2014”

In April 2015, the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America (OCMAL) published a report about the impacts of, the mobilization around and the resistance against mining in ten countries of Latin America. During the last decades, Latin America has become an epicenter of the global expansion of mining. Despite the recent drop in the …

Report: “Water for whom? Water scarcity and tree plantations in Arauco Province (Chile)”

Last March, the Report “¿Agua para quién?. Escasez hídrica y plantaciones forestales en la Provincia de Arauco” (“Water for whom? Water scarcity and tree plantations in Arauco Province”) was published as part of the Campaign “Agua que has de Beber” (Water to be drunk), promoted by Chilean NGO “Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque …

The story of the stairs

What would seem to be a simple object, a staircase, is transformed into an inspiration for reflecting about the surrounding southern Chilean extractive landscape, who has access to it and who receives its impacts. These realities are connected through Chilean history and the everyday stories of its inhabitants. Several months have gone by, but I …

Emotional Political Ecology – Personal being political and vice-versa

by Marien González Hidalgo I am now back in Santiago de Chile, after spending six intense weeks doingfieldwork mainly in the province of Arauco (Southern Chile), researchinga second case study for my PhD thesis on the political ecology of forest fires. I am an environmentalist and environmental scientist with training in psychology and therapy. That's why in …