Chilean Logging Interests Steal Indigenous Birthright

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of forests.org

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9/13/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The notion that outrageous abuse upon indigenous cultures by Western

outsiders is a thing of the past needs to be reconsidered. The same

wanton exploitation, genocide and ecocide practiced throughout the

past 500 years continues apace; particularly where timber, oil and

mineral interests want what indigenous land contains. Following is

an account of the Mapuches of Chile, and their efforts to protect

their ancestral lands from industrial forest "development."

g.b.

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Title: Industry, `people of earth' clash over land

In Chile, Mapuches say logging interests stole their

birthright

Source: Miami Herald

Date: September 6, 1999

Byline: JIMMY LANGMAN

CERRO NIELOL, Chile -- The Mapuches, who for centuries fought back

the Incas and the Spaniards, are fighting again -- this time to

regain some of the land they lost when they made peace with the

republic of Chile in 1881.

The Mapuches, the last indigenous people of the Americas to be

conquered, have tired of eking out a living on small plots of land

while the environment around them deteriorates. Their territory,

which once occupied a quarter of Chile from south of the Bio Bio

river to the island of Chiloe, declined to about 6 percent of their

ancestral holdings with the signing here in Cerro Nielol of ``The

Pacification of Araucania.''

Southern Chile is exploding with Mapuche protests. The Mapuches say

that multinational timber companies have most of their ancestral

land; that they are eliminating native forests, drying up water

sources and poisoning their communities with pesticides.

The region's serene landscape of snow-capped volcanoes, extensive

blue-green lakes and lush temperate rain forest is rapidly being

transformed into plantations of non-native pine and eucalyptus to

feed a growing global appetite for Chilean wood products.

``We Mapuches are the first ecologists on the planet. We want to

return to an ecological equilibrium with nature,'' said Manuel Fren,

the longko, or chief, of Cuyinco, one of the more than 100 Mapuche

communities in direct conflict with timber companies.

``The forest companies contaminate the air and rivers and turn our

land into pine trees to sell to foreigners, and what do we have?

Nothing. We have misery and hunger,'' Fren said.

All this year, groups of Mapuches have been demonstrating by

attacking and burning timber company machinery, blocking roads, or

staging land occupations. Many of their actions have turned into

violent confrontations with large squadrons of Chilean police or with

timber company security guards.

Mapuches have been shot at, beaten, arrested and their homes

ransacked. More than 400 Mapuches have been imprisoned this year.

Mapuches say their communities are under siege by the police, and

that their human rights are being violated.

``There is no doubt the Mapuches are being discriminated against in

Chile within the realm of human rights,'' agrees Cecilia Merino, a

Chilean, who in March began serving as chair of the U.N. Human Rights

Commission. ``The state needs to ensure the possibility of these

people to enjoy their culture, their religion and part of their

culture has to do with the bond they have with the land.''

`People of the earth'

For the nation's one million Mapuches, whose name in their language

means ``people of the earth,'' the lands of southern Chile are

central to their traditions and way of life. In addition to a degree

of political autonomy over their communities, they are demanding the

return of an estimated 50 percent of the land in the region owned by

timber companies, about 1.2 million acres.

For the Chilean government and for forestry companies that have set

up shop in the region, these same lands are an important asset for

economic development. Currently, forestry products are Chile's second

largest export and nearly 90 percent of these exports are derived

from the nation's five million acres of tree plantations.

``On average, each plantation could be valued at about $4,000 per

acre, and . . . each pulp mill is worth about $500 million,'' said

Fernando Raga, vice president of the Chilean Wood Products

Association and general manager of Forestal Minnico, the region's

second-largest land owner.

``This is our land and we will not negotiate. We are not the

counterpart of the Mapuche, we are their neighbors,'' said Raga.

``Land is not their solution; education is.''

The Chilean government is seeking to guarantee the investments of the

timber companies while combating discrimination against Mapuches and

increasing investment in programs to lift the Mapuches out of

poverty.

In early August, President Eduardo Frei announced a three-year, $274

million aid package to go toward a wide range of initiatives such as

construction of new roads and houses, improved health care and

education programs, and technical assistance to Mapuche farms.

Land titles destroyed

On a small scale, the government is helping to return some land to

Mapuche communities whose claims can be backed up by legal

documentation. Under the country's 1992 Indigenous Law, a land fund

was set up which so far has transferred to Mapuches around 185,000

acres. But most legal titles were destroyed by the military

dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, says Jacques Choncol, former

minister of agriculture during the 1970-73 Salvador Allende

government.

``We gave to the Mapuches 740,000 acres as a historical reparation in

our agrarian reform program, but the Pinochet government took the

land back and sold it to the forest companies at low prices. And

after that the Pinochet government subsidized 90 percent of the costs

of the tree plantations,'' said Choncol.

Leaders of the Mapuches vow their demonstrations will continue as

long as the government's proposals to solve their land claims remain

inadequate.

``The forestry companies have most of our land, but they have made a

mistake by not negotiating with Mapuche communities. If there is no

solution to our land claims, there is no possibility to end this

conflict,'' said Aucan Huilcaman, leader of the Mapuche group Council

of All Lands.

``Eco-cide is happening in Mapuche territory,'' said Huilcaman. ``The

foreign investors and NAFTA also need to be aware that this territory

is in the process of restitution and this process is irreversible. We

are asking for our territory, self-determination, and a new relation

with the state of Chile.''

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