Industry, 'People of Earth' clash over land

September 6, 1999

In Chile, Mapuches say logging interests stole their birthright

By JIMMY LANGMAN (Special To The Herald)

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 been 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.''

Source: Miami Herald

From: gholz85@yahoo.com (Guillermo Holzmann)
Sender: owner-forest-americas@igc.org

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