Adriana Hoffmann
Chilean botanist, environmentalist, and author (1940–2022)
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Through Environmentalism, Forest management and Biology
Hoffmann authored over a dozen books on the flora of Chile, as well as 106 botanical names, mostly realignments of species and infraspecific taxa of cactus.
Biography
Adriana Hoffmann was born in Santiago to Lola (née Jacoby) and Franz Hoffmann in 1940. She grew up in Providencia and attended Liceo Manuel de Salas. She was accepted at the University of Chile where she initially studied agronomy. She joined her mother when she traveled to Germany to study psychiatric techniques and there Adriana changed her focus to biology and specialized in botany and ecology. After she finished her studies, she returned to Chile and married engineer Hernán Calderón. They lived abroad for a time until returning to Chile in the 1970s.
Through her career, Hoffmann traveled throughout Chile, documenting flora and describing species. By April 2008, she had identified and classified 106 new cactus species.
In 1992, Hoffmann became coordinator of the non-profit organization Defensores del Bosque Chileno, Chile's largest forest protection group. She formed Agrupación de Defensores del Bosque Nativo in 1994, a group whose founding members included well-known singers and poets as well as economist Manfred Max Neef and Bishop Bernardino Piñera. By the mid-1990s, Hoffmann was recognized as one of Chile's premier environmental activists.
Hoffmann served on the board of the Lahuen Foundation, a forest preservation organization that established El Cañi Sanctuary. She also played a leading role in the Chilean Science Society, Biology Society of Chile, Earth Foundation, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Association of Chilean Female Leaders. Hoffmann's efforts with Defensores del Bosque included developing environmental education programs for teachers.
Hoffmann was appointed by President Ricardo Lagos in March 2000 to serve as executive secretary of the National Environment Commission, a precursor of Chile's Ministry for the Environment. During her tenure she oversaw the creation of the national hiking trail network Sendero de Chile, improved the System of Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA), and worked to implement environmental education programs and improve air quality in Santiago. During her tenure she encountered criticism from business interests for her environmentalist stances and from environmental groups for her perceived lack of influence within the administration. Following the controversial approval of petcoke for gas-fired generators over her objections, Hoffmann resigned in October 2001, stating that she no longer felt she was supported by Lagos or the Ministers. She returned to work with Defensores del Bosque and prepared for her eventual retirement.
Hoffmann died on 20 March 2022.
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Environmental advocacy
During Pinochet's dictatorship, the government gave multinational timber firms unfettered access to Chilean forests and little incentive to process the lumber in-country. Hoffmann has noted that the rapidly disappearing private native forests are mostly wasted through exports of wood chips. In a 1995 article she remarked: "We've seen with our own eyes how [timber companies] take immense trees and shred the whole thing, branches and all." Beginning with her involvement with Defensores del Bosque, Hoffmann agitated for the reform of Chilean forestry practices. She was a vocal advocate for sustainable forest management in the country, arguing that ecotourism and value-added products like furniture lead to greater long-term revenue.
Hoffmann wrote columns about ecology for El Mercurio in the 1990s and opposed free trade agreements that would replace native forests with commercial tree plantations. She criticized the Chilean government for not adopting a forestry policy.
Hoffmann befriended American businessman and preservationist Douglas Tompkins, who provided funding for Defensores del Bosque. She defended his efforts to establish a 1,200-acre nature reserve in the Chilean Lake District. The New York Times reported that she said: "If this investment were anywhere else but Chile, Mr. Tompkins would be considered a hero. But it happened in Chile, where envy and jealousy and business interests are institutions."