Land disputes in peri-urban areas involving the powerful pulp and paper cartel are on the rise in Chile. In addition to longstanding issues of land ownership, these disputes are now being exacerbated by a widespread housing crisis. Celulosa Arauco y Constitución, the country’s biggest pulp and paper company, has recently taken a confrontational stance against informal settlements in their property. Known as “tomas” (takings), these occupations are the Chilean equivalent to other Latin American slums, such as favelas or villas miseria, and often happen in land whose property is unknown or disputed. This is a worrying development, marked by extreme poverty, but its solution cannot be the mere and brutal eviction.
Land disputes with a long history
The current cycle of land disputes in Chile is deeply rooted in a history of injustice. It began nearly five decades ago, in 1974, as part of the military regime counter-agrarian reform, when the forestry enterprises took over former indigenous and peasant territories for plantation development. With substantial financial, legal and military support, two companies Celulosa Arauco y Constitución and its competitor Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) came to develop and dominate the pulp and paper industry by creating a huge latifundia that accounts for over 3 million of hectares.
While the return to a democratic regime in 1990 raised expectations for the restoration of land to its indigenous and peasant owners, this aspiration was not realized.Instead extensive plantations of pine and eucalyptus have continued to grow, degrading the ecosystems and encroaching on the neighboring settlements.
Nowadays, many local communities began to reclaim land through tomas or occupations, either for subsistence agriculture, cultural and spiritual practices, or just for housing. For instance, in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst the housing crisis, a group of families settled in some empty plots owned by Arauco, in Curanilahue, in the southern region of Biobio. According to local residents, one of the drivers of the housing shortage is indeed the expansion of ForestalArauco control over more than half of the municipality’s land.
Arauco’s harmful response
Instead of a negotiated solution Forestal Arauco resorted to using public force and criminalisation, denying its historical responsibility for past land-grabbing practices. In order to get rid of settlers, Arauco resorted to the anti-tomas Law, crafted by far-right senators and recently approved, which sentences prison for people involved in occupations, whether public or private. Furthermore, this legislation grants private citizens the authority to apprehend those occupying the land, thereby legitimating paramilitary organizations and security personnel acting as agents of the state.
Arauco last move has been to report en masse occupying families by filing complaints for all cases of land occupation. These complaints also targeted families currently living in Curanilahue despite the area has been affected by extreme weather conditions, such as storm rains and flooding, which are estimated to have impacted over 6,300 homes. “We fear they will sue everyone. We have been harassed with drones, police, and forest trucks during all this time”, stated to Resumenmagazine Lorena Garrido, a spokeswoman for one of the affected groups of families located in Laguna del Manzano.
In 2022, EPN, together with local partners, published an extensive report documenting the impacts of the pulp and paper industry in Chile, including forest erosion, water table, wildfires, climate change and, crucially, extensive and poorly managed conflicts with local communities and indigenous people. Since then, the situation has not improved, in fact, it seems to be getting worse. In light of these more recent conflicting dynamics, major investors like Vanguard and BlackRock should rethink their holdings in Chilean forestry giants like Arauco and CMPC.
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