Abstract
The forestry sector in Chile has an important role in the domestic economy, being the second leading export sector after the mining industry. Investments in forest plantations have grown in the last 40 years thanks to implementation of the Decree Law 701. Planted forests currently account for 17.4% of the total national forest cover. The objective of the study is to analyse non-industrial forest owners’ perceptions of positive and negative externalities of forest plantations in four less developed municipalities of the Maule Region. We implemented a literature review, the estimation of an Expert’s Response Indicator (ERI), and the implementation of an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology for the analysis. The results indicate that non-industrial forest owners in the four municipalities perceive the importance of each externality in a different way according to their territorial specificities. However, considering the whole study area, “CO2 sequestration”, “improvement of livelihood”, and “more importance of small and medium forest owners” were considered the most important positive externalities, while the most relevant negative externalities were “water shortage”, “power asymmetry”, and “land loss”. The study encourages further research with a similar detailed analysis on stakeholders’ perceptions of plantation projects, both to revise investment features and inform local stakeholders on their real impacts.
Highlights
As stated by Sargent and Bass [1], industrial plantations can become, in the best cases, a major asset for local development by providing raw materials, infrastructure, employment, income, and environmental and recreational services
In a context where the strong neoliberal economic strategy paved the way for a model of exportled growth, extractive activities reinforced and enhanced the export of large amounts of raw materials from almost all segments of the primary sectors with the aim of making Chile one of the five largest food and wood producer countries; this development has brought about a remarkable transformation
In a context where the strong neoliberal economic strategy paved the way for a model of export-led growth, extractive activities reinforced and enhanced the export of large amounts of raw materials from almost all segments of the primary sectors with the aim of making Chile one of the five largest food and wood producer countries; this development has brought about a remarkable transformation in land use
Summary
As stated by Sargent and Bass [1], industrial plantations can become, in the best cases, a major asset for local development by providing raw materials, infrastructure, employment, income, and environmental and recreational services. In Chile, the forestry sector has seen fast development in the past 40 years, due to the expansion of industrial forest plantations of exotic species, after a decreasing trend of forests cover and growing stocks in the previous three centuries [2]. This trend inversion started in the 1970s during the military. The massive expansion of forest production and of the wood-working industry has gained the sector a relevant role in the national economy [7] and a world leadership positioning in the wood market [8]
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