We ascertained villagers’ perceptions about the importance of forests for their livelihoods and health through 1,837 reliably answered interviews of mostly male respondents from 185 villages in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. Variation in these perceptions related to several environmental and social variables, as shown in classification and regression analyses. Overall patterns indicated that forest use and cultural values are highest among people on Borneo who live close to remaining forest, and especially among older Christian residents. Support for forest clearing depended strongly on the scale at which deforestation occurs. Deforestation for small-scale agriculture was generally considered to be positive because it directly benefits people’s welfare. Large-scale deforestation (e.g., for industrial oil palm or acacia plantations), on the other hand, appeared to be more context-dependent, with most respondents considering it to have overall negative impacts on them, but with people in some areas considering the benefits to outweigh the costs. The interviews indicated high awareness of negative environmental impacts of deforestation, with high levels of concern over higher temperatures, air pollution and loss of clean water sources. Our study is unique in its geographic and trans-national scale. Our findings enable the development of maps of forest use and perceptions that could inform land use planning at a range of scales. Incorporating perspectives such as these could significantly reduce conflict over forest resources and ultimately result in more equitable development processes.

People’s perceptions about the importance of forests on Borneo

Chile has embraced the expansion of monoculture forest plantations of exotic Monterey pine and eucalyptus as part of its development strategy. While forestry is considered financially successful and meets sustainability objectives, the increase in forest plantations across southern Chile has received harsh critiques for exacerbating conflict over Indigenous land rights, producing negative environmental outcomes, and increasing poverty and inequality. There are also claims that forest plantation expansion has led to an abandonment of the countryside. Migration is viewed as a result of the socioeconomic challenges that forest plantations produce at the local level; however, the linkages have not been explored. We examine the linkages between forest plantations and migration through two questions: Is there a relationship between forest plantation cover change and out-migration from rural areas? If so, what are the factors that explain this process? We use a difference-in-differences method analyzing panel data from the Chilean census and from CONAF, the Chilean National Forest Corporation, complemented by interviews, mapping workshops, and focus groups to answer these questions. Results indicate a statistically significant relationship between expanding forest plantations and population decline in rural areas. Qualitative data show that this expansion led to displacement of residents, declines in employment opportunities, and agriculture difficulties.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/3/283/pdf

Expanding Exotic Forest Plantations and Declining Rural Populations in La Araucanía, Chile

Una de las transformaciones de mayor impacto ocurridas en el sector rural de Chile en las ultimas decadas es la expansion de las plantaciones forestales. En la Region del Bio-Bio, ubicada en el centro-sur del pais, se concentra gran parte de la actividad forestal del pais, con un millon de hectareas plantadas, el 25% de las cuales se encuentra en la provincia de Nuble, la que en las dos ultimas decadas practicamente ha triplicado su superficie plantada. En el marco de una investigacion mas amplia sobre la expansion forestal en dicha provincia, el articulo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre la percepcion de un conjunto de actores sociales involucrados respecto a la expansion de las plantaciones forestales y sus impactos. Asimismo, se discuten los factores que inciden y fundamentan tales percepciones. Este estudio se realizo en base a entrevistas en profundidad a actores locales afectados por la expansion forestal y a autoridades de nivel local, provincial y regional.

Expansión forestal en Nuble y reestructuración social y productiva a nivel local. Percepción de los actores

In southern Chile, an establishment of a plantation-based forest industry occurred early in the industrial era. Forest companies claim that plantations were established on eroded lands. However, the plantation industry is under suspicion to have expanded its activities by clearing near-natural forests since the early 1970s. This paper uses a methodologically complex classification approach from own previously published research to elucidate land use dynamics in southern Chile. It uses spatial data (extended morphological profiles) in addition to spectral data from historical Landsat imagery, which are fusioned by kernel composition and then classified in a multiple classifier system (based on support, import and relevance vector machines). In a large study area (~67,000 km2), land use change is investigated in a narrow time frame (five-year steps from 1975 to 2010) in a two-way (prospective and retrospective) analysis. The results are discussed synoptically with other results on Chile. Two conclusions can be drawn for the coastal range. Near-natural forests have always been felled primarily in favor of the plantation industry. Vice versa, industrial plantations have always been primarily established on sites, that were formerly forest covered. This refutes the claim that Chilean plantations were established primarily to restore eroded lands; also known as badlands. The article further shows that Chile is not an isolated case of deforestation by afforestation, which has occurred in other countries alike. Based on the findings, it raises the question of the extent to which the Chilean example could be replicated in other countries through afforestation by market economy and climate change mitigation.

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Deforestation by Afforestation: Land Use Change in the Coastal Range of Chile

Due to the Aichi targets, the international community committed to the sustainable management of silvoagricultural activities and to the elimination or reform of detrimental subsidies relative to biodiversity conservation. In this context, countries should have implemented specific actions to address these commitments. In Chile, the Instruments of Productive Promotion to Finance Field Work (IPP-FFW) framework was used to fund activities related to silvoagricultural systems, including, irrigation, plantations with exotic species, and the recovery of soils. However, concerns have been raised that are associated with the need for evaluating their effectiveness, including whether impact assessments should be carried out systematically. Considering that these subsidized activities may negatively impact nature, whether IPP-FFWs had been allocated is analyzed regardless of the threat degree of terrestrial ecosystems at the commune level in Chile using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ecosystem risk assessment methodology; moreover, the eventual relationship between changes in land use and ecosystem service provisions in case study for the Biobio region in Chile is also examined, for which the monetary consequences of the loss of ecosystem services—via the analysis of benefit transfers—are calculated. Evidence reveals that higher amounts of IPP-FFWs are allocated in communes with higher levels of threats and that a decrease in ecosystem service provision is associated with IPP-FFW’s allocation.

/pdf/are-we-putting-the-money-in-the-right-pocket-ascertaining-96qd19oi.pdf

Are We Putting the Money in the Right Pocket? Ascertaining the Eventual Relationship between Silvoagricultural Subsidies, Ecosystem Threats, and Ecosystem Services in Chile

The relationship between the forest sector and the well-being of people that depend on it for their economic livelihoods in rural areas is of strong interest in forest policy. In this sense, Chile has developed a forest policy that has had positive impacts, particularly on economic and productive aspects, but also negative impacts, such as the reduction of natural forest area, biodiversity, and provision of ecosystem services, as well as the increase in social conflicts and land abandonment. However, there are few studies that have evaluated the impacts of forest policy on rural population and development of the territory. Therefore, the objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of Chilean forest policy on rural communities, particularly in terms of demographic variables and indicators of community well-being. The study area corresponds to the Bio Bio and Nuble Regions (Chile), and the analysis includes productive, demographic, socioeconomic, and educational characteristics of population. The results show that the forestry policy implemented was able to generate a significant increase in the proportion of forest area. However, when this increase is mainly of the type of exotic forest plantations, it is associated with a demographic and socio-economic detriment of the population in some counties of the study area.

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/11/10/1105/pdf

Raúl Cerda

Papers

An Analysis of the Impact of Forest Policy on Rural Areas of Chile