Forestry in Chile

The wave of forest plantations that begun in the 1970s was initially a response to severe soil erosion that affected much of the country. There was a broad support for plantations when these were first implemented but by the 1980s a conservationist critique had grown exposing the adverse effects of plantations on certain plant and animal species, on biodiversity and on water resources. In many cases the establishment of plantations meant not reforestation but the replacement of existing forests with plantations.

The growth of the forestry sector since the 1980s is the consequence of growth of the export-oriented economy in Chile. Critics argue it has created an enclave economy. In the area of Cañete and Tirúa forestry companies have been accused of contributing to the displacement of indigenous Mapuche communities. In the last decades the communities of Temucuicui have had a conflict, at times physically violent, with the forestry company Forestal Mininco, leading to the detention and imprisonment of community members in the prisons of Angol and Cañete.