Forest Fires and New Climate Regime: Interrogating the Production of Knowledge and Valuation of the Environment in Forest Engineers in Chile

• In Event: Engineers: Makers of the World or Cogs in the Machine? - II: Engineers, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Communities

Abstract

Forest fires are one of the most serious environmental problems facing Chile today. Between January and February 2017 more than 587,000 hectares were burned, generating great human, economic and environmental losses. The fires have generated controversies around the anthropic origin of fire, the inability of the State to control the fires and the responsibility of the forest industry in these catastrophes. Scientist’s claim, on the basis of mounting evidence, that plantations of pine and eucalyptus have diminished the water supply in valleys dominated by forest plantations, reducing the native forests and increasing the occurrence of fires. Given that the capacity of the Chilean State to produce authoritative knowledge about the environment is weak, fires have triggered multiple disputes concerning the scientific credibility of pro-business and environmental experts. At the core of these disputes are forestry engineers. This paper discusses how different groups of forestry engineers have responded to the problem of fires and analyses their role in producing knowledge about the environment and its value. It contrasts two ‘epistemic communities’ of forestry engineers whose work reflects different interests, but mobilizes similar expertise: that concerning forest plantations and native forest management. The first group is largely associated with timber producers and the second with environmental conservationists. The paper contrast their professional identities, ways of producing knowledge, deploying expertise, processes of valuing and ‘economizing’ the environment. It discusses how their differing points of view, epistemic and social strategies mediate perceptions of forest fire in Chile.

Author

• Tomas Undurraga