Chile's Forestry Industry, FSC Certification and Mapuche Communities
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Chile’s Forestry Industry, FSC Certification and Mapuche Communities Research Coordinators Rosamel Millaman and Charles Hale Research Team José Aylwin, Margarita Canio, Yerko Castillo, Héctor Nahuelpan, Carlos Oyarzun, Rubén Sánchez Consultants Martin Correa and Juliana Paula Vidal Collaborators Ximena Ancamil Huentemil.1 Translator Paul Salter Administration Newen Mapuche Development and Technical Consultation NGO and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin 9th November 2016 1 Pablo Huaiquilao participated as forestry advisor, at the request of FSC International. Prologue In April 2015, an international group of independent researchers, coordinated by Rosamel Millaman and Charles R. Hale, embarked on a comprehensive study whose guiding theme was the situation of Mapuche communities in the region of La Araucanía in relation to forestry companies in Chile. The intention of this study was to provide a document that could form a basis for renewed and improved dialogue about the way these companies conduct their forestry operations in the lands that are historically claimed by these Mapuche communities. Following its principles of a democratically inspired and chamber balanced forestry certification scheme, FSC International gave its green light to this project with the specific mandate that it was to be fully independent, led and conducted by a group of researchers that had no formal ties to our organisation and therefore did not represent the governance positions of neither FSC International nor FSC Chile. Through extensive field work and interviews, the study has identified and documented the concerns of certain Mapuche communities in relation to forest management companies operating in their ancestral homelands. Researchers have gathered a significant amount of testimonies with independence from FSC and have reached important conclusions. The study has evidenced that there are outstanding issues that we must work at in order to create a space for both forestry companies and local communities to harness the full extent of FSC certification benefits without it compromising economic development, social empowerment and environmental safeguards in the region. How can we all benefit from economic progress and honourFree Prior and Informed Consent of the Indigenous Peoples of Chile? How can FSC certification be an enabling factor for the welfare of local communities while providing for companies a space for responsible timber sourcing? We understand that these research works are important for making political decisions that lead to common good. Although progress must be made, it is nonetheless important to stress that since its introduction in Chile, FSC certification has enhanced responsible forest management in the country and secured an important amount of social development among a number of communities that are not in conflict with the forest companies and have clearly benefitted from employment opportunities and other local developments. It is appropriate to acknowledge the willingness of community leaders, local actors, companies and various stakeholders to socialize the participation system contained in the FSC Forest Certification System. 2 As Director General of FSC, I am pleased to present the results of this research. I know that giving voice to the criticism and demands that are strongly felt by some Mapuche communities may be painful to the forest companies and to FSC as an institution. The recommendations of the study do not express FSC’s position, and it is likely that we will not agree to follow them all, we would not be able to respond to all the recommendations since some are more related to State policies. However, being able to engage in dialogue about difficult and highly controversial issues is one of the core strengths of FSC, and I am absolutely confident that the study will lead us to endeavour, both to indigenous communities and to large and small enterprises, to the best of our capacity, to transform the controversy into a constructive platform for dialogue going forward, where we can seek consensus-led solutions to these challenges. Yours sincerely, Kim Carstensen Director General FCS International 1 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6 General Overview: A Region in Conflict ...................................................................................... 9 The Roots of the Conflict .......................................................................................................... 12 The State and the Forestry Companies in the Study ................................................................ 18 Principal Findings of the Study .................................................................................................. 20 Mapuche Outlook for the Future .............................................................................................. 23 Chapter 1 – Mapuche Rakizuam: Mapuche Thought in the Four Lof Mapu ................................ 25 The Lof Mapu in the Context of the Social and Political Structure of the Mapuche ................ 25 Meli Lof Mapu Mew: Inside the Territories .............................................................................. 31 Key Components of the Lof Mapu ............................................................................................ 34 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 2 – The Mapuche People, the Chilean State and the Forestry Industry: Historical Perspectives ............................................................................................................................... 39 Civilisation versus savagery, cleared lands versus forest: the military occupation .................. 40 Mapuche Reduction, Loss of Native Forest and State Incentives for Forestry Activity ............ 42 The Mapuche and the Chilean Land Reform ............................................................................ 48 Dictatorship in Mapuche Territory ........................................................................................... 53 Post-Dictatorship Legislative Framework and State Policy on Forestry Plantations ................ 56 Regulatory Framework and Public Policy Regarding the Mapuche since 1989 ....................... 62 Unrest, Social Protest and State Response ............................................................................... 67 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 3 – The history of the Lof Mapu in Four Localities.......................................................... 78 Colonial Appropriation and the Títulos de Merced in Lleu Lleu: Origins of Dissent ................. 80 Ancestral Lands on the Arauco Coast ................................................................................... 80 Privately Owned Property in Lleu Lleu and the Mapuche Territorial Reduction .................. 82 The Land Reform in Arauco: Hacienda Tranaquepe ............................................................. 90 The Lands of the Lleu Lleu Lof and the Current Situation .................................................... 91 Hope Renewed and Destroyed: The Land Reform in Luikura-Reñico ...................................... 92 The Ancestral Lands .............................................................................................................. 92 Resettlement and Reduction on the Plains of Lumaco ......................................................... 93 Land Reform and Counter-Reform on the Lumaco Plains .................................................... 94 The Lumaco Plains and the Current Situation .................................................................... 100 Adjudication of Territorial Claims: The Paradigmatic Case of Temulemu .............................. 101 The Temulemu Lof and the Ancestral Lands ....................................................................... 101 Resettlement, Reduction and the Formation of Private Property in Temulemu ............... 102 Conflict and the Territorial Claim in Temulemu ................................................................. 105 Temulemu and the Land Reform ........................................................................................ 106 The Community of Temulemu and the Current Situation .................................................. 107 2 Mañiuko Lof Mapu: Historical Background, Legal-Political Implications, Future Plans ......... 110 "Before the Chileans arrived (...) these territories belonged to our grandparents" .......... 110 "They gave us what was left over": War, Colonisation and Reduction .............................. 114 Transfer of Mapuche lands "from weñefe to weñefe" during dictatorship and democracy .................................................................................................................... 119 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 126 Chapter 4 – Environmental Impacts of Exotic Forestry Plantations ..........................................