There is a growing amount of researches analysing and interpreting the territorial transformation caused by expanding tree plantations in southern Chile. The research is focused mainly on two regions, Biobio and Araucaria. More to the south, in Los Ríos, research on the consequences of the plantations and on the alternatives to them is less prominent. In Los Ríos, strong environmental concerns are presented in the public sphere. Despite this, it has one of the highest rates of planted land expansion in the last 30 years.

Alejandro Mora-Motta, RLC PhD student in Bonn, spent a year conducting field research in Los  Rios, studying how tree plantation “extractivism” affects peasant and indigenous communities in central-southern Chile. In a ZEF News interview, he shares his special experiences such as meeting a mapuche woman whose mother in law had to leave her territory, due to the plantations, in deep sorrow.

Read the full interview here.