Forests at the Limits

Forests at the Limits Forestry, Land Use and Climate Change from Political Ecology and Environmental Communication Perspectives– The Case of Chile & Sweden Cristián Alarcón Ferrari Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Department of Urban and Rural Development Uppsala Doctoral Thesis Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala 2015 Acta Universitatis agriculturae Sueciae 2015:5 ISSN 1652-6880 ISBN (print version) 978-91-576-8228-4 ISBN (electronic version) 978-91-576-8229-1 © 2015 Cristián Alarcón Ferrari, Uppsala Print: SLU Service/Repro, Uppsala 2015 Forests at the Limits: Forestry, Land Use and Climate Change from Political Ecology and Environmental Communication Perspectives– The Case of Chile & Sweden Abstract This thesis is based on a comparative study of forest use and land use for forestry in Sweden and Chile. Processes of forestry development in the two countries are placed in relation to world forestry. Theoretically, the thesis draws insights and conceptualisations from historical materialism, critical theory and world systems theory to work with a framework combining political ecology and environmental communication. The thesis deals with forestry, forest use and land use in times where the importance of wood biomass is fundamental as climate change challenges are substantially defined by the use of forests and land. In this context, the changing meanings and materiality of forests, forestry and land use constitute a fundamental political process today at both national and global levels. One main focus in the research has been to explore current processes linking forestry and climate change politics and how they are materialized in two geographical areas; the study areas having been Ñuble province in Chile and Jämtland- Västernorrland in Sweden. The thesis analyses both contemporary and past events influencing the present situation of forestry in the two countries, uses incorporated comparison as a specific comparative approach and is methodologically informed by notions of dialectics. Analysis of discourses, observations, interviews and other methods have been put together along with theoretical reasoning on the constitution and transformation of historically specific social-ecological relations. The thesis empirically shows relations between social changes associated with forestry and theoretically draws from, and elaborates on, different forms of critical theory. An important finding of this thesis is the deep interconnection between forestry in Chile and forestry in Sweden. The study also shows that forestry development in Chile influences the overall situation of forestry in Sweden and vice versa. In this regard, forestry in the two countries has been shown to form and be formed through the historical development of world forestry. The thesis also shows how climate change has transformed discursive practices of forestry in the two countries. In addition, the thesis highlights labour questions, movement of resistance related to capitalist forestry development and specific discourses articulating forestry development in the two countries. A main conclusion of the thesis is that the conflictive nature of forestry in Chile and Sweden is greatly entangled with processes of environmental communication and political ecology relations; relations that are today formed to an important degree through use value and exchange value contradictions. Keywords: forestry, forests, land, tree plantations, political ecology, environmental communication, climate change, labour, capital. Author’s address: Cristián Alarcón, SLU, Department of Urban and Rural development, P.O. Box 7012, 750 07Uppsala, Sweden, Cristian-alarcon.ferrari@ slu.se Dedication Para Carina, con todo mi amor, con toda mi vida. Gracias, por todo el amor, el cariño, el apoyo, la alegría y la vida en común. No hay palabras, no hay conceptos, no hay verbos para poner aquí todo lo que quisiera decir ahora. Jag älskar dig! Isabel, Simón y Oscar: ahora estoy de vuelta y me libere de la Universidad ladrona!. Les amo con toda mi alma y ahora quiero que nos tiremos nieve y después nos vamos a la playa y a la cordillera en Chile! In memory of Rodrigo Alexis Cisternas Fernández La noche de año nuevo emprendimos la caminata entre Coñaripe y Villarrica. Arribamos a esa ciudad en la madrugada del martes 1 de enero del 74 y esa misma tarde llegamos a Temuco. Ponía así término a lo que fueron días, semanas y meses de intensas batallas y sufrimientos. Luego vendrían incontables y penosos años de lo mismo, pero esos ya son dolores de otros tiempos. José Manuel Bravo Aguilera Cómo yugo de apretao tengo el puño esperanzao porque todo cambiará. Victor Jara The form of wood, for instance, is altered, by making a table out of it. Yet, for all that, the table continues to be that common, every-day thing, wood. But, so soon as it steps forth as a commodity, it is changed into something transcendent. It not only stands with its feet on the ground, but, in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head, and evolves out of its wooden brain grotesque ideas, far more wonderful than “table-turning” ever was. Karl Marx Today immediacy of aesthetic comportment is exclusively an immediate relationship to the universally mediated. That today any walk in the woods, unless elaborate plans have been made to seek out the most remote forests, is accompanied by the sound of jet engines overhead not only destroys the actuality of nature as, for instance, an object of poetic celebration. It affects the mimetic impulse. Nature poetry is anachronistic not only as a subject: Its truth content has vanished. Theodor Adorno Where might such a revisionary assumption—that these twin planes, "communication" and "labor," could not in fact ever really be separated except for schematic purposes—leave us with regard to the history of communication study? Dann Schiller Contents Acknowledgements 11 Preface 13 1 Introduction 17 1.1 Problem formulation and aims of the thesis 21 1.2 Research design, research questions and theoretical standpoint 22 1.3 Structure of the thesis 25 2 Literature review and framework for theorizing 27 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 Literature reviews: forestry, political ecology and environmental communication 28 2.2.1 From forests and land use to forestry and climate change 28 2.2.2 Political ecology 47 2.2.3 Environmental communication 52 2.3 Towards a framework for theorizing 63 2.3.1 Political ecology in relation to labour, values, power and forestry 76 2.3.2 Environmental communication in relation to discourses, ideology and hegemony 95 2.3.3 A framework for theorizing and its methodological implications 116 3 Methodology 125 3.1 Incorporated comparison 127 3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 130 3.3 Methods of data collection and analysis 132 3.3.1 Study areas 132 3.3.2 Fieldwork 136 3.3.3 Observations and interviews 137 3.3.4 Text collection and secondary sources 137 3.3.5 Triangulation 138 3.3.6 Methodological comments, methods of analysis and summary of the empirical material 138 4 Forestry in Chile 141 4.1 Introduction: The Ñuble province in the wider context of forestry in Chile 141 4.2 A forestry revolution in Ñuble province 144 4.2.1 Bringing the neoliberal state into the trees: the DL 701 150 4.2.2 Pulp mill conflicts 154 4.2.3 “…The Sword of Damocles…”: The multiple arrivals of climate change to the area and the case of carbon credits and REDD’s boutique carbon credits 161 4.2.4 Hydropower, a dam irrigation project, and a biological corridor becoming a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: where to put the plantations and how to replace the natives? 165 4.2.5 Agro-ecological challenges to industrial forestry and its tensions 167 4.2.6 Mega fires, alternative forestry projects and the instability of discursive relations 170 5 Forestry in Sweden 179 5.1 Introduction: Forestry in Middle Norrland (Jämtland- Västernorrland) and its wider context 179 5.2 Local forestry governance in Jämtland-Västernorrland 180 5.2.1 The future of the Forest Kingdom is formed now: a conference in 2013 184 5.2.2 The meanings of forestry sector and forestry industry 192 5.2.3 Swedish forestry development contested 195 5.2.4 Climate change and forestry relations 201 5.3 A critical conjuncture of forestry in Sweden 211 6 Chile, Sweden and World Forestry Relations 243 6.1 Introduction 243 6.2 Plantations in Chile, knowledge from Sweden 245 6.3 World markets and political interactions in forestry 251 6.4 Corporations, pulp production and labour issues 255 6.5 New and old contexts for forestry 262 6.6 Conclusions 272 7 Analysis and discussion 275 7.1 Introduction 275 7.2 Key findings of the study 275 7.3 Analysis and discussion 277 8 Conclusions 289 8.1 Theoretical and empirical contributions of the thesis and political implications of the study 299 References 303 Appendix I 327 Appendix II 341 Appendix III 355 Appendix IV 361 Acknowledgements Primero que nada: gracias Carina. Literalmente, gracias por todo. Isabel, Simón y Oscar: gracias por hacer de cada día una razón para decir gracias a la vida. First of all, I would like to thank you Nadarajah Sriskandarajah and Hans Peter Hansen for all these years of work and cooperation. Sri you have been an incredibly supportive supervisor and, along with believing in my project and understanding of the deeper sources of my motivation, you have provided me fundamental guiding and caring. Words cannot describe how thankful I am! Hans Peter you have given me great support and your critical questions have contributed to my project enormously. I am very grateful for you accepting to be my supervisor in the end and for your enthusiasm. It has been a privilege to have you both as partners in this adventure! Thanks to Anni Hoffrén, Elvira Caselunghe, Lars Hallgren, Emelie Drott and Andrew Butler.

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