This paper argues that in Patagonia-Aysén (southern Chile) nature discourses and neoliberalism have a close association. The current discourse of “green” development is presented as a capitalist practice, a renewed form of colonization that creates a narrative around the need to protect this pristine environment because it is a “Reserve of Life.” To explore these complex processes further, the paper presents fieldwork undertaken from 2017 to 2019 in the municipalities of Tortel and O’Higgins. Through extensive fieldwork that encompassed interviews and analysis of the Land Registry (Conservadores de Bienes Raíces, or CBR) of the region, we investigated the evolution of private property rights in both municipalities over a period of 29 years (1989–2017) in order to illustrate the changes in land ownership that had occurred. The paper puts forward the concept of eco-extractivism, in order to identify green-grabbing processes undertaken by extractivist investors in Patagonia-Aysén.

There are two barriers to accomplishing restoration of ecosystems: insufficient information about historical baselines to guide restoration, and shifts between the actual baselines and perceptions about historical conditions. These two conditions generate a phenomenon called shifting baseline syndrome (SBS). Our study systematically reviewed and quantitatively analyzed the SBS studies. There is an increase and subsequent stabilization in the number of publications, 32% of scientific articles added new information and 5% of them delivered biological and social information required to demonstrate the SBS presence. Meta-analysis conducted showed an inconsistency between biological and social data. The inclusion of a greater amount of species in the biological data compared to social data produced the inconsistency. There must be an improvement in reporting both biological and social information to assess SBS. The integration of both sources of information would also enhance the success of restoration projects. The consideration of perceptions about resource users are also in accordance with global agreements about sustainable use of natural resources and ecological restoration.

Landscapes are shaped over time by the changing imaginaries that result from new representations of nature and the value associated with it. This paper discusses the evolving discourses which have shaped the perception of the landscape in two socially and ecologically significant contexts in Chile. The first is the central-southern region of the country, a large portion of which is now devoted to commercial forestry plantations. The second is the Patagonia-Aysén region, where since the 1990s, colonization of a land defined by a tradition of livestock rearing has evolved into a process epitomized by the slogan “Aysén, Life Reserve.” The representation that was made of central-southern Chile in the 50' and 60' as a deforested and degraded land was the justification for promoting a new form of land occupation: the monoculture forest, designed and executed by a specific law. Forty years on from the passing of this law, the plantations of central-southern Chile have undergone a process of naturalization. In this case, the exaltation of nature has been permanent (before and after the changes doing by this law). The only thing that changes is the definition of nature, which ended up including forest plantations. That is, discourses influence perceptions and these lead to new practices in the study area and beyond. In Patagonia-Aysén, by the other side, there has been a marked shift in the rhetoric surrounding land. This has been particularly noticeable in the case of government bodies and private ecotourism companies, which have constructed an imaginary in line with a new model of economic development for the area. In a break with tradition, both the public and private sectors are beginning to shift their investment away from agricultural and livestock exploitation and toward ecotourism and conservation projects. In both cases, we analyse the manner in which transformations in perceptions and representations of landscape bring about new forms of land use, and how new focuses of value and social interest, forged within wider environmental discourses, have brought with them unexpected social consequences, like depopulation, economic transformations, cultural changes, etc. Thus, the aim of this work is to expose and discuss the reality and scope of new green discourses and their influence on the perception of natural landscapes in the Chilean neoliberal context.

En el Gran Concepción ha habido importantes transformaciones relativas al espacio socio-demográfico y a la estructura urbana en los últimos sesenta años, vinculadas al proceso de industrialización sustitutiva de importaciones y a la posterior integración de la economía nacional al mercado globalizado. En este artículo se analizaron dichas transformaciones mediante indicadores socio-educacionales, etarios, de empleo en industria y en servicios, buscando verificar si su comportamiento espacial se asociaba con los procesos mencionados, poniéndolos en perspectiva frente a la noción de progreso y desarrollo. Los resultados muestran una temprana concentración del empleo en industria en la conurbación. La estructura socio-educacional mantuvo a los grupos altos en el centro de Concepción, pero ha tendido recientemente a una localización más periférica, acorde con los mecanismos de metropolización y liberalización del mercado de suelo. Se presentan dos momentos de la ciudad: uno que responde a la idea de progreso y otro que recoge la noción de desarrollo, ambas discutidas en torno a la geografía social de la ciudad.

This paper proposes a social geography of environmental conflicts in Santiago de Chile, from the perspective of political ecology. For this purpose, a series of conflicts were identified and localized through consultation of three sources: judicial decisions, print media, and social networks, sources which were then cross-referenced with specialized socioeconomic information. The results show a trend towards concentration of socio-environmental conflicts in the most privileged socioeconomic sectors of the city, a phenomenon which is not consistent with their conditions of deterioration or environmental quality. Based on this finding, it discusses whether socio-environmental conflicts are a new form of social exclusion or solely a matter of the elites.