Paper short abstract:

It is argued that forestry science was vital in the nation-building of Chile in the Araucanía region between 1912 and 1931. Foresters were key in protecting the forest for the common good and they were the main brokers between the different parties interested in the forest resources.

Paper long abstract:

Chilean forest history during the late modern period has been understood as a process of extractivism and ‘Chilenization’. The state strove to control the forest and its people without any major consideration of the territory’s ethnic and environmental diversity. In this sense, the Chilean history would not be so different from other experiences in the Global North and in the Global South.

However, a new analysis of the sources from the Araucanía region, southern Chile, between 1912 and 1931, suggests that the situation was more complex. It is argued that Chilean state officers were vital for building a nation. They made significant efforts to conserve the forests for the common good, having to cope with the lack of collaboration of some land occupants and the harshness of the elements. The Chilean foresters also strove to accommodate the different interests that Euro-Chilean settlers and indigenous people had on the forest natural resources.

Thus, the Araucanía’s case not only nuances the extractivist trend or narrative that tends to dominate forest history, but it also warns historians that the obstacles to conservation may come from ‘below’, rather than from the ruling elite. From a wider perspective, the Chilean case shows the important role that the state can play in the socioenvironmental challenges posed by the Anthropocene. It demonstrates that ‘seeing like the state’(James Scott) did not necessarily involve a simplification of the ecological and social reality.