Do Large Private Protected Areas Contribute to Sustainable Development? a Case Study from the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve in Neltume, Chile
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Research eco.mont – Volume 9, Number 1, January 2017 ISSN 2073-106X print version – ISSN 2073-1558 online version: http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/eco.mont 5 https://dx.doi.org/10.1553/eco.mont-9-1s5 Do large private protected areas contribute to sustainable development? A case study from the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve in Neltume, Chile Benedikt Hora Keywords: private protected areas, sustainable tourism, Chilean Andes, economic transition Abstract Profile This study explores the impacts perceived by the local population in Neltume, a Protected area small rural village in the mountains of southern Chile, after a private protected area, the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve, was established. Since the 1990s, Neltume Huilo Huilo Biological has experienced economic transition from the forestry sector to the development of special-interest tourism. This research aims to investigate how this transition affects the local population and tourism in the area. Methods used were secondary data Reserve review, participant observation, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and questionnaires with local householders, students and tourists. The results indicate Mountain range that this kind of private protected area plays an important role in local development. However, such developments could present a risk in the future because they create a Andes strong dependency for local inhabitants on just one economic activity. Country Chile Introduction nancially to implement a rainforest protection area where the forest was threatened by logging. Another Private actors have become increasingly prominent example is the Mbaracayú Natural Forest Reserve in in conserving naturally valuable areas. Their numbers Paraguay, which aims to protect the Atlantic Forest, are rising thanks in particular to neoliberal tendencies one of the five world biodiversity hotspots (Quintana in conservation which emphasize and strengthen the & Morse 2005). In Brazil, similar private initiatives role of private individuals. This phenomenon can be have been developed. There, the small private reserves observed worldwide, particularly in developing coun- (< 50 ha) tend to be more successful in conservation tries. Private initiatives can be linked to biodiversity and ecotourism (Pegas & Castley 2014). Chile has 308 conservation, biocarbon sequestration, biofuels, eco- Private Protected Areas (PPAs), with an estimated area system services and ecotourism (Fairhead et al. 2012). of 1 651 916 ha (Núñez et al. 2013). In Chile, Mapuche Igoe & Brockington (2007) argue that the neoliberali- indigenous communities have implemented private zation of conservation involves the regulation of na- protection initiatives on their territories (Meza 2009). ture through commodification. Holmes (2012, 2014) According to the IUCN guidelines, PPAs are de- points out three reasons for this new phenomenon. fined as those under“ individual, cooperative, NGO or Firstly, the retreat of state bodies and an increase of corporate control and/or ownership, and managed under not- NGOs who are running protected areas, formulating for-profit or for-profit schemes […] [where] the authority for policies, and becoming more active in other environ- managing the protected land and resources rests with the land- mental protective activities. Second, conservation is owners, who determine the conservation objective, develop and increasingly integrated in market mechanisms. In or- enforce management plans and remain in charge of decisions, der to protect biodiversity, valuable land is sold, for subject to applicable legislation” (Dudley 2008, 26). Newly example for bio-prospecting or ecotourism, or as pay- established areas are often considered problematic, as ments for ecosystem services. Third, since the 1980s benefits from the areas’ resources are seized by outsid- and accelerating since the 2000s, leading NGOs have ers, causing exclusion and harm to local people and increased their cooperation with companies, copying possibly leading to displacement and impoverishment. their methods, for example in marketing, and showing For example, evidence from the ecotourism project their own activities in a good light. in the Tayrona National Park in Colombia (90% of In Latin America, private actors are the main driv- which remains in private hands) shows that ancestral ers in transforming environmentally valuable land inhabitants were displaced. In 2010, fishermen who into protected areas (Büscher & Whande 2007). This were living beside the beach in the park were evicted. is facilitated by the new global policies dealing with Most of them left for the nearby city of Santa Marta climate change and environmental degradation. One (Ojeda 2012). In the coastal areas of Tanzania, wild- example is the Regenwald der Österreicher environmental life conservation has led to an end of former activities project in Costa Rica, in which an Austrian non-profit (e. g. smallscale fishing) and capital accumulation by a organization helped the Costa Rican government fi- number of powerful actors (revenue-seeking state of- Research 6 Figure 1 – Study area. ficials, international conservation organizations, tour- Public protected areas cover 19.2% of Chile’s ter- ist companies, the State Treasury) (Benjaminsen & ritory, comprising 36 National Parks, 49 National Bryceson 2012). However, harm to the local people Reserves and 15 Natural Monuments, and covering can be mitigated if the protection process is carried 14 500 000 million ha (Sierralta et al. 2011). Most of out in a participatory manner. Although establishing the protected areas are concentrated in the far south, PPAs can result in conflicts, they make a significant in the Patagonian fjords region, and the extreme north contribution to biological conservation in some areas of the country, where conflicts in land use are rare. (Holmes 2013), and analysing PPAs is important be- Chile has 308 PPAs, with an estimated area of cause they are relatively rarely studied. It is also rel- 1 651 916 ha (Núñez et al. 2013), or 2.12% of Chile’s evant to explore how and why this trend has emerged territory. However, they tend to be in areas with higher and the impacts that PPAs have on both people and protection value and threatened biomes (Pliscoff & nature (Holmes 2015). Fuentes-Castillo 2001), mainly in areas of the Chilean Chile presents a good example of neoliberal change temperate forests, which are classified as biological in Latin America, which was introduced shortly after hotspots (Echeverría et al. 2006). 34% of the plants in the establishment of the military regime (1973). From these forests are endemic (Armesto et al. 1996). Im- then on, private actors took over public tasks. Pri- portant endemic trees located in the area are from the vate actors also became more active in conservation Nothofagus (southern beeches) family or the Fitzroya cy- (Sepúlveda 1997; Corcuera 2000; Tecklin & Sepúlveda pressoides (Alerce), among many others. 2014). The first PPAs were established in Chile at the Many areas of native forest in southern Chile were end of the 1980s (Parque Oncol 1989; Santuario El converted in the 20th century to forest plantations, Cañi 1990; Parque Pumalín 1991) (Sepúlveda & García where the Pinus radiata imported from California and 1997). Holmes (2013) mentions four factors that have Eucalyptus globulus are found in monocultures for cel- facilitated their implementation in Chile: lulose extraction and wood chip production (Oyarzún - The strong property rights; & Huber 1999). The Decree Law 701 of 1974 aimed - market-orientated solutions propagated by the mili- to convert the forestry industry into a largely privately tary regimen; owned, exporting business. This included selling the - the possibility of running a PPA profitably, espe- country’s forests at artificially low prices to private cially through speculation; industry, direct subsidies for plantation (75% of the - a sufficient number of wealthy Chileans who are cost), and tax exemptions (Wilson et al. 2005). This interested in owning a PPA. ongoing process has led to decreasing native forests. Benedikt Hora 7 Plantations are found particularly in the regions of side, the Biosphere reserve borders on the Reserva de la Bio-Bio, la Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos. This Biósfera Andino Nordpatagónica. destruction of native forest also enhanced the interest This region of southern Chile was originally inhab- of implementing PPAs. ited by Mapuche communities, an indigenous group In this process towards PPAs, the Reserva Biológica who have their main living sites in the la Frontera area. Huilo Huilo can be seen as an emblematic example. The first non-indigenous residents came to the area in The forestry industry was in a crisis and the native 1885. Then a mission from the Order of Friars Minor forests in the area were becoming increasingly deci- Capuchin arrived and established schools and church- mated. With the establishment of the reserve and the es (Kohut 2006). Neltume, which is situated further conversion to tourism, a new economic opportunity into the mountains, became colonized at the begin- developed not only for the owners of the reserve but ning of the 20th century through a boom in the wood also for the local community. The public sector has industry in Chile at the time. In 1947, Panguipulli be- also helped the region to become a tourist destination, came an official municipality (Rivas 2006). through the creation of the Destino Turístico Siete Lagos During the first decades of the 20th century, other within