Social sustainability amid violence: the Chilean example of tree monocultures

Forests around the world are under major threat. The tree monoculture industry is destroying vast areas of the Earth’s ecosystems. Genetic manipulation of plants, mainly Pinus (Pinus Radiata) and Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), has enabled these exotic species to outcompete native species through mutations, inhibiting native species by spreading aggressively, and altering soil structure. This is an explosive combination contributing to increasing wildfires and climate change, and harming biodiversity. Large-scale conversion of forest lands to agriculture and tree plantations is creating high violence episodes across the world, as in the Chilean case.

Introduction

The economic model of endless growth is driving the expansion of monocultures as a source of revenue. The historically rich countries claim to offset their greenhouse gases emissions by supporting the spread of monocultures in historically overexploited nations, framing this as part of mainstream sustainable development and presuming that each tree captures carbon from the atmosphere. This assumption doesn’t consider the impacts on the carbon cycle and its eventual destruction.

Forest monocultures have become a paradigm for "nature-based solutions" to the climate crisis. Companies and governments promote plantations as carbon sinks, linking them to market mechanisms such as carbon credits and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies. These strategies have embedded themselves in the global decarbonization agenda that emerged from climate agreements.

But evidence shows a disconnect between climate change discourse and the socio-ecological consequences of monocultures, which include among others soil erosion, droughts, wildfires, biodiversity loss, disputes over indigenous land claims, and rural to urban transgression of people and land.

Much of Chile's sawn timber and forest products are exported to the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and other developed countries. This dynamic makes Chile a key player in the global forest commodity chain, where vast areas of native forests and traditional agricultural lands are being replaced with intensive monoculture plantations to meet international demand (Instituto Forestal [INFOR], 2021; Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2022).

This article highlights the Chilean example and illustrates how the commodification and mass production of monoculture plantations causes serious social consequences, particularly for rural and indigenous communities, i.e. the Mapuche, in Chile. This paper argues that forest monocultures cannot be considered socially sustainable models, given the structural tensions and conflicts they generate due to its anti-ecological approach.

This is the first of a series of 3 articles which examine impacts of plantations over (1) population, (2) the environment and (3) the climate. While these domains are intertwined, this approach will help readers grasp not only the impacts, but also how they interact across different spheres, with the ultimate hope of contributing to the protection of forests.

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