In Chile’s neoliberal economy, large-scale timber plantations controlled by national and multinational forest corporations have expanded significantly on traditional indigenous territories. Chile’s forestry sector began to expand rapidly in 1974, the year following the military coup, owing to the privatization of forest lands and the passing of Decree 701. That law continues to provide large subsidies for afforestation, as well as tax exemptions for plantations established after 1974. As a consequence, conflicts have developed between indigenous communities and forestry companies, with the latter actively supported by government policies. The Mapuche people, the largest indigenous group in Chile, have been demanding the right to control their own resources. Meanwhile, they have been bearing the physical and social costs of the forestry sector’s growth. Since democracy returned to Chile in 1990, governments have done little to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples. Government policy in this area is ill-defined; it consists mainly of occasional land restitution and monetary compensation when conflicts with the Mapuche threaten to overheat. This, however, is coupled with heavy-handed actions by the police and the legal system against Mapuche individuals and groups. From a political ecology perspective, this thesis examines how indigenous communities resort to various political strategies to accommodate, resist, and/or negotiate as political-economic processes change, and how these responses in turn shape natural resource management and, it follows, the local environment. My findings are that the environmental and social impacts associated with landscape transformation are shaped not only by structural changes brought about by economic and political forces but also, simultaneously, by smaller acts of political, cultural, and symbolic protest. Emerging forms of political agency are having expected and unexpected consequences that are giving rise to new processes of environmental change. Evidence for my argument is provided by a case study that focuses on the political strategies followed by the Mapuche movement. I analyze the obstacles that are preventing the Chilean government from addressing more effectively the social, economic, and cultural needs of indigenous peoples through resource management policies. Government policies toward the Mapuche have not encompassed various approaches that might facilitate conflict resolution, such as effective participation in land use plans, natural resource management, the protection of the cultural rights of indigenous communities, and the Mapuche people’s right to their own approaches to development. Employing Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I argue that, while the Mapuche have widely contested the state’s neoliberal policies, they have nevertheless been drawn into governing strategies that are fundamentally neoliberal in character. These strategies have reconfigured their relationship with the state, NGOs, and foreign aid donors. Operating at both formal and informal levels of social and political interaction, this new mentality of government employs coercive and co-optive measures to cultivate Mapuche participation in the neoliberal modernization project, while continuing to neglect long-standing relations of inequality and injustice that underpin conflicts over land and resources.

In Chile’s neoliberal economy, large-scale timber plantations controlled by national and multinational forest corporations have expanded significantly on traditional indigenous territories. Chile’s forestry sector began to expand rapidly in 1974, the year following the military coup, owing to the privatization of forest lands and the passing of Decree 701. That law continues to provide large subsidies for afforestation, as well as tax exemptions for plantations established after 1974. As a consequence, conflicts have developed between indigenous communities and forestry companies, with the latter actively supported by government policies. The Mapuche people, the largest indigenous group in Chile, have been demanding the right to control their own resources. Meanwhile, they have been bearing the physical and social costs of the forestry sector’s growth. Since democracy returned to Chile in 1990, governments have done little to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples. Government policy in this area is ill-defined; it consists mainly of occasional land restitution and monetary compensation when conflicts with the Mapuche threaten to overheat. This, however, is coupled with heavy-handed actions by the police and the legal system against Mapuche individuals and groups. From a political ecology perspective, this thesis examines how indigenous communities resort to various political strategies to accommodate, resist, and/or negotiate as political-economic processes change, and how these responses in turn shape natural resource management and, it follows, the local environment. My findings are that the environmental and social impacts associated with landscape transformation are shaped not only by structural changes brought about by economic and political forces but also, simultaneously, by smaller acts of political, cultural, and symbolic protest. Emerging forms of political agency are having expected and unexpected consequences that are giving rise to new processes of environmental change. Evidence for my argument is provided by a case study that focuses on the political strategies followed by the Mapuche movement. I analyze the obstacles that are preventing the Chilean government from addressing more effectively the social, economic, and cultural needs of indigenous peoples through resource management policies. Government policies toward the Mapuche have not encompassed various approaches that might facilitate conflict resolution, such as effective participation in land use plans, natural resource management, the protection of the cultural rights of indigenous communities, and the Mapuche people’s right to their own approaches to development. Employing Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I argue that, while the Mapuche have widely contested the state’s neoliberal policies, they have nevertheless been drawn into governing strategies that are fundamentally neoliberal in character. These strategies have reconfigured their relationship with the state, NGOs, and foreign aid donors. Operating at both formal and informal levels of social and political interaction, this new mentality of government employs coercive and co-optive measures to cultivate Mapuche participation in the neoliberal modernization project, while continuing to neglect long-standing relations of inequality and injustice that underpin conflicts over land and resources.

In Chile’s neoliberal economy, large-scale timber plantations controlled by national and multinational forest corporations have expanded significantly on traditional indigenous territories. Chile’s forestry sector began to expand rapidly in 1974, the year following the military coup, owing to the privatization of forest lands and the passing of Decree 701. That law continues to provide large subsidies for afforestation, as well as tax exemptions for plantations established after 1974. As a consequence, conflicts have developed between indigenous communities and forestry companies, with the latter actively supported by government policies. The Mapuche people, the largest indigenous group in Chile, have been demanding the right to control their own resources. Meanwhile, they have been bearing the physical and social costs of the forestry sector’s growth. Since democracy returned to Chile in 1990, governments have done little to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples. Government policy in this area is ill-defined; it consists mainly of occasional land restitution and monetary compensation when conflicts with the Mapuche threaten to overheat. This, however, is coupled with heavy-handed actions by the police and the legal system against Mapuche individuals and groups. From a political ecology perspective, this thesis examines how indigenous communities resort to various political strategies to accommodate, resist, and/or negotiate as political-economic processes change, and how these responses in turn shape natural resource management and, it follows, the local environment. My findings are that the environmental and social impacts associated with landscape transformation are shaped not only by structural changes brought about by economic and political forces but also, simultaneously, by smaller acts of political, cultural, and symbolic protest. Emerging forms of political agency are having expected and unexpected consequences that are giving rise to new processes of environmental change. Evidence for my argument is provided by a case study that focuses on the political strategies followed by the Mapuche movement. I analyze the obstacles that are preventing the Chilean government from addressing more effectively the social, economic, and cultural needs of indigenous peoples through resource management policies. Government policies toward the Mapuche have not encompassed various approaches that might facilitate conflict resolution, such as effective participation in land use plans, natural resource management, the protection of the cultural rights of indigenous communities, and the Mapuche people’s right to their own approaches to development. Employing Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I argue that, while the Mapuche have widely contested the state’s neoliberal policies, they have nevertheless been drawn into governing strategies that are fundamentally neoliberal in character. These strategies have reconfigured their relationship with the state, NGOs, and foreign aid donors. Operating at both formal and informal levels of social and political interaction, this new mentality of government employs coercive and co-optive measures to cultivate Mapuche participation in the neoliberal modernization project, while continuing to neglect long-standing relations of inequality and injustice that underpin conflicts over land and resources. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

O processo internacional de discussão sobre orientações e programas voltados à conservação das florestas iniciado na década de 1990 foi influenciado pelos resultados das conferências internacionais sobre meio ambiente e pelos efeitos da globalização neoliberal. Esta dissertação examina a repercussão dessas inter-relações nas políticas de conservação florestal que vêm sendo implementadas e defendidas por diferentes atores, as quais valorizam a participação da sociedade civil e do mercado na gestão ambiental e promovem os interesses econômicos do setor florestal. Faz também uma avaliação crítica dos limites das teorias tradicionalmente utilizadas para a compreensão dos processos internacionais de elaboração de políticas para o meio ambiente e florestas (que utilizam principalmente os conceitos de regime internacional e governança global em suas análises), apontando para a necessidade de se colocar em destaque o caráter conflitivo e desigual do sistema no interior do qual essas políticas são pensadas. / The international discussion on programs and guidelines for forest conservation which began in the early nineties was influenced by the results of the international environmental conferences and by the effects of neoliberal globalization. This dissertation examines the repercussion of these interrelationships over the forest conservation policies that have been implemented and supported by different actors, which value the civil society and market participation in environmental management and promotes the forest sector economic interests. It also critically evaluates the limits of the theories traditionally employed to the comprehension of the international environmental policy-making process (which primarily use the concepts of international regime and global governance in their analyses), indicating the need of emphasizing the contentious and unequal character of the system within which these policies are thought.

O processo internacional de discussão sobre orientações e programas voltados à conservação das florestas iniciado na década de 1990 foi influenciado pelos resultados das conferências internacionais sobre meio ambiente e pelos efeitos da globalização neoliberal. Esta dissertação examina a repercussão dessas inter-relações nas políticas de conservação florestal que vêm sendo implementadas e defendidas por diferentes atores, as quais valorizam a participação da sociedade civil e do mercado na gestão ambiental e promovem os interesses econômicos do setor florestal. Faz também uma avaliação crítica dos limites das teorias tradicionalmente utilizadas para a compreensão dos processos internacionais de elaboração de políticas para o meio ambiente e florestas (que utilizam principalmente os conceitos de regime internacional e governança global em suas análises), apontando para a necessidade de se colocar em destaque o caráter conflitivo e desigual do sistema no interior do qual essas políticas são pensadas. / The international discussion on programs and guidelines for forest conservation which began in the early nineties was influenced by the results of the international environmental conferences and by the effects of neoliberal globalization. This dissertation examines the repercussion of these interrelationships over the forest conservation policies that have been implemented and supported by different actors, which value the civil society and market participation in environmental management and promotes the forest sector economic interests. It also critically evaluates the limits of the theories traditionally employed to the comprehension of the international environmental policy-making process (which primarily use the concepts of international regime and global governance in their analyses), indicating the need of emphasizing the contentious and unequal character of the system within which these policies are thought.

O processo internacional de discussão sobre orientações e programas voltados à conservação das florestas iniciado na década de 1990 foi influenciado pelos resultados das conferências internacionais sobre meio ambiente e pelos efeitos da globalização neoliberal. Esta dissertação examina a repercussão dessas inter-relações nas políticas de conservação florestal que vêm sendo implementadas e defendidas por diferentes atores, as quais valorizam a participação da sociedade civil e do mercado na gestão ambiental e promovem os interesses econômicos do setor florestal. Faz também uma avaliação crítica dos limites das teorias tradicionalmente utilizadas para a compreensão dos processos internacionais de elaboração de políticas para o meio ambiente e florestas (que utilizam principalmente os conceitos de regime internacional e governança global em suas análises), apontando para a necessidade de se colocar em destaque o caráter conflitivo e desigual do sistema no interior do qual essas políticas são pensadas. / The international discussion on programs and guidelines for forest conservation which began in the early nineties was influenced by the results of the international environmental conferences and by the effects of neoliberal globalization. This dissertation examines the repercussion of these interrelationships over the forest conservation policies that have been implemented and supported by different actors, which value the civil society and market participation in environmental management and promotes the forest sector economic interests. It also critically evaluates the limits of the theories traditionally employed to the comprehension of the international environmental policy-making process (which primarily use the concepts of international regime and global governance in their analyses), indicating the need of emphasizing the contentious and unequal character of the system within which these policies are thought.

Thesis (MScFor (Forest and Wood Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The discussion on climate change is leading to a re-evaluation of tree plantations in South Africa; prompting the adoption of forest bioenergy system as one of the cost effective ‘carbon mitigation options’. In an analysis of this changing paradigm, emphasis was placed on the socio-economic aspects of integrated commercial tree plantations and forest bioenergy systems with special attention to harvest residues recovery for bioelectricity production and construction and operation of a bioelectricity plant. The study also explored the direct and indirect benefits that adjacent communities derive from tree plantations in South Africa in order to determine the potential impact of integrated timber and bioelectricity production on rural livelihood and conventional forestry operations. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used in randomly sampling twelve villages on Mondi tree plantations in the Piet Retief and Iswepe areas of South Africa. Six villages from each area were selected; and a systematic random sampling of ten households per village was carried out. The possibility of using harvest residues from final clear felling from these plantations for bioelectricity production was examined. The study developed and described a scenario for a five megawatt bioelectricity generation facility, requiring an annual volume of 19,569.85 dry tonnes of residues as feedstock for its operation. The study revealed that adjacent rural communities to Mondi plantations in Piet Retief and Iswepe areas enjoy direct benefits such as employment opportunities, utilization of harvest residues, utilization of non-timber resources, and free accommodation. Indirect benefits that these communities enjoy include: free farmland and graze-land and various social benefits. Issues of concern and dislike such as: lack of electricity; poor health and sanitation and transportation problems were also identified. Using NPV and IRR, the study estimated the economic impacts of integrated pulpwood and bioelectricity production, compared to conventional pulpwood production operation. The study concluded that integrated pulpwood and harvest residue recovery for bioelectricity production is a profitable means of producing renewable energy. The approach was found to increase the profitability of conventional forest operations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Besprekings rondom klimaatsverandering lei tot ‘n her-evaluasie van boom plantasies in Suid Afrika wat aanleiding gee tot die aanvaarding van bio-energie stelsels as een van die koste effektiewe “koolstof versagtende opsies”. In ‘n ontleding van hierdie paradigma verandering, is klem geplaas op die sosio-ekonomiese aspekte van die integrasie van boom plantasies en bos bio-energie stelsels. Spesiale aandag is gegee aan onginningsafval herwinning vir bio-energie produksie en die konstruksie en werking van ‘n bio-elektriese kragsentrale. Die studie ondersoek ook die direkte en indirekte voordele wat gemeenskappe, aangrensend aan boom plantasies in Suid Afrika verkry, om sodoende die potensiële effek van geintegreerde hout en bio-elektriese produksie op landelike lewensbestaan en konvensionele bosbou operasies te bepaal. Gestruktureerde vraelyste en indiepte onderhoude is gebruik om ‘n lukraakte steekproef van twaalf dorpies op Mondi boom plantasies in die Piet Retief en Iswepe areas van Suid Afrika uit te voer. Ses dorpies in elke area is gekies en ‘n sistematiese lukraakte steekproef van tien huishoudings per dorpie is uitgevoer. Die moontlikheid om ontginningsafval van finale kaalkap van hierdie plantasies vir bio-elektrisiteit te gebruik is ook ondersoek. Die studie het ‘n senario ontwikkel en beskryf van ‘n vyf megawatt bio-elektriese kragsentrale wat ‘n jaarlikse volume van 11,708 droë ton ontginningsafval benodig as voermateriaal vir kragopwekking. Die studie het getoon dat aangrensende landelike gemeenskappe langs Mondi plantasies in die Piet Retief en Iswepe areas direkte voordele soos werksgeleenthede, gebruik van ontginningsafval, gebruik van nie-hout hulpbronne en gratis akkommodasie geniet. Indirekte voordele wat gemeenskappe geniet sluit in gratis toegang to landbou grond en weiding, sowel as sosiale voordele. Probleemfaktore waarmee hulle saamleef is ‘n gebrek aan elektrisiteit, swak gesondheids en sanitasie dienste en vervoerprobleme. Deur die gebruik van NPV en IRR analitiese metodes is die ekonomiese impak van geintegreerde pulphout en bio-elektrisiteits produksie bepaal en vergelyk met konfensionele pulphout produksie. Die gevolgtrekking is dat geintegreerde pulphout en ontginningsafval herwinning vir bio-elektrisiteit produksie ‘n winsgewende manier van hernubare energie produksie is. Die benadering kan die winsgewendheid van konfensionele bosbou operasies verbeter.