“Now they tell me to preserve it”: Changing environmental imaginaries in southern Chile

Abstract

This article investigates the environmental imaginaries behind disputes between conservation and industrial projects in the province of Palena, Chile. In particular, we study Pumalín Park, the first and most controversial Tompkins Conservation (TC) project in Chile, and how TC projects and ideas have affected environmental imaginaries in southern Chile. We revisit the question of why conservation initiatives have generated so much friction and what aspects of the environmental imaginaries in dispute, and in which ways, have been adopted by local inhabitants. We conducted participant observations in Pumalín Park and 22 interviews with conservationists, park rangers, entrepreneurs, local authorities and inhabitants of Chaitén and El Amarillo between 2018 and 2022. In addition, we reviewed 72 press articles and institutional documents. We argue that, rather than embracing these environmental imaginaries of conservation or industrialist development, local inhabitants have adopted a pragmatic view of conservation that values nature as a means to improve their living conditions and local economies. This ‘bottom up’ environmental imaginary emerges in response to historical conditions of isolation and relative State absence, and to a shift in the economic drivers present in Palena, from an economy dependent on extractive industries to one increasingly based on green tourism. These findings show that it is not just the vision of the State or the market that dictates the composition of territories; imaginaries can also be formed from below, according to local needs.