**3. The adaptive capacity lenses**

of pastures and shrubs, and 512 ha of wetlands [58]. Nearly 76% of the natural ecosystems

In June 2017, the CORFO presented a 13-million-dollar plan to reactivate the economy in the area affected by the wildfire. This plan included direct planting and restoration. The ecological restoration would receive 31% of the funds, while the rest of the money would be used to clean, take out the burned barks, sell them, and plant the same species that were burnt in the large wildfire. In this case, the planting would not be done through DL 701 but as direct contracting through the CONAF. The goal is to replant 40,000 hectares of tree farms

**Figure 3.** Area burnt in 2017 wildfire in Central Chile. The land use cover burn is indicted with solid bright colors, while

vegetational formations (floors) are indicated with softer colors (Sources: [76, 77]).

affected are in a precarious conservation status (danger or critical danger) [7].

in 3 years [58].

252 Land Use - Assessing the Past, Envisioning the Future

Using the idea of the rational manager from Scheffer et al. [31], this section will explore the questions: what is affecting the "behavior" of the rational manager? What is delaying adaptation in the Chilean SES despite the long-announced tragedy?

As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the political-economic context, which is sustained by specific discourses, works as the "slow variables" explaining the current lack of adaptive capacity of LULCC in Chile. The economic aspects of the timber plantations are clear. On one hand, the economic structure and the adaptation of specific tree species have configured a very profitable industry that would not have transformed the landscape without the strong support of the state. Now we see that even after the 2017 wildfire, state commitment for supporting these activities has been renewed by securing funds for the next 30 years, despite the change in the climate, vulnerability, and societal preferences. It remains to be seen whether this new fund would imply a second wave of forestry expansion, as it happened in 1975.

As proposed in the SSEF, the political articulation and the social construction of the environment is shaped by political dynamics and discourses. Given the political constitution of Chile, which only acknowledges individuals' rights, the farmers and peasants' organizations only get to claim political power when they articulate themselves as individual owners. The political constitution was utilized by opponents of the NFL to avoid any strong regulation for the conservation of the native forest. In this way, legacies from the dictatorship are legitimizing today's construction of forest policy. Historically, throughout the several policies that fostered timber farms, there was always a discourse that pivoted between the environmental tragedy, such as the erosion in the 1940s, the 2010 earthquake, or the need for fast recovery after the 2017 wildfire, as well as the social benefits of maintaining the DL 701 subsidy for small farmers. In summary, the political-economic variables legitimized, through a combination of strategies, the sustenance of a maladaptive behavior that has fostered landscape transformation for more than 40 years.

Few studies have simultaneously embraced both the social and ecological processes related to adaptive capacity and land use change. Allison and Hobbs found that ecological processes can be the slow variables leading to rigidity traps. In Australia, soil salt increase has led to decreased production, which now resulted in a rigidity trap [61]. In Alaska, regulation and economic cycles also played a central role. The Alaskan timber industry enjoyed 15 years of a policy monopoly until production decreased, the material interest of small contractors was affected, and federal environmental regulations came into place [62]. Both studies highlight the importance of spatial and temporal scales and processes. The influence of economic cycles on land use change goes beyond the scope of this work, nevertheless in the future should be addressed.

developing economies" [8]. Instead, political ecology calls for a recognition of the placespecific factor that led to uneven patterns of development, production, and consumption [8]. Although Chile is often celebrated as a case of forest recovery [73], it is a case of tree cover increase, and this fact should not be ignored when designing policy recommendations for other countries, as it might shape the future of land use and its governance [73]. As mentioned above, the "success" of the afforestation policy was mainly the result of the larger changes rooted in specific events of the political and social history of Chile. Moreover, given the current situation, tree farming seems irreversible, highlighting the nonreversible nature of socio-ecological systems (Section 2). Forest recovery assessments must differentiate tree cover from forest cover, while also considering forest transitions as context dependent.

A Critical Assessment of the Adaptive Capacity of Land Use Change in Chile: A Socio-Ecological Approach

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80559

255

**4. Conclusion, policy recommendations, and research significance**

and explain the current lack of adaptive capacity of LULCC in Chile.

the implications of its success on adaptive capacity in the long term.

ronmental issues without hindering future capacity for adaptation.

helpful review, as well as the anonymous chapter reviewers and editor.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

I declare no conflict of interest.

This chapter describes some of the mechanisms that have hindered adaptive capacity in Chile regarding forest policy and land use. Overall, Chile's case exemplifies how a land use trend can become resilient due to political, social, and economic processes. In the case of Chile, economic and political processes interact in a way that results in a rigidity trap across the social and ecological system. Current political and economic processes act as the "slow" variable

To prevent rigidity traps, it is key to develop institutional mechanisms that break reinforcing dynamics between politics, power, and profits and foster change, diversity, adaptation, and learning [26]. More specifically for the case of Chile, it is difficult to claim that native forests would become a viable land use, without prior structural changes or some unimaginable surprise. Rather than providing panaceas for afforestation, Chile's afforestation case provides insights about the socio-ecological underpinnings of a short-term increase in tree cover and

Through a transdisciplinary approach, this research has contributed to the literature on adaptive capacity, socio-ecological systems, and land use transition, providing useful insights for policy makers and for scientific and humanities scholars who want to address current envi-

This research is funded by the CONICYT FONDECYT Chile grant number 11150281. I would also like to thank Francisco Abarca for the map elaboration and Tania Manuschevich for her

### **3.1. Alternative land use trends? Implications for forest transition theory**

As mentioned before, tree farms in Chile are very profitable, and even a large subsidy for native plantations and no subsidy for tree farms would not have implied a large change in the land area demanded for native forest in the late 1990s [52, 63, 64]. Furthermore, in Chile, it is more difficult to plant native species than to plant tree farms. This is due to the technical difficulties of planting native species, which include summer drought, lack of affordable seedlings, non-native wild herbivores, lack of lay knowledge, and the fact that most of the research funding is focused in the development of research and management techniques for non-native species [65]. This suggests that tree farms are a very "resilient" land use, due to the economic, political, and technological context. Nevertheless, forest's natural regeneration can be a much more effective way of recovering the forest [66, 67]. Even though it is unlikely that a one-time payment for native forest management and conservation would initiate the reversal of a resilient land use trend—such as tree farms—forest can recover where tree farms are not planted [64]. Several studies show that if a land plot is not planted with three farms, the native forest recovers [64, 66, 67]. Thus the evidence suggests that tree farms are hindering actual forest recovery. These results can have interesting implications for broader questions regarding forest transition theory.

Forest transition theory seeks to explain why and when a country switches from forest loss to recovery. The theory initially developed by Mather [4] argues that countries recover their forests when they reach some level of economic development. Mather's explanation has guided much of the academic and policy-making discussion but has also obscured some relevant concepts, such as the difference between forest cover and tree cover. Although afforestation does provide some environmental benefits, tree farms do not necessarily provide the same benefits as native forest [68, 69]. Drawing from ecology, Putz and Romero [68] call for a critical assessment of forest recovery in the Global South. They call for more attention to the structure, function, and composition of forested ecosystems, rather than an oversimplified assessment of forest transition based solely on tree cover [68, 69]. Differentiating between forest cover and tree cover for assessing forest transitions becomes even more critical if trees are used mainly for industrial production, where inputs of energy and matter are inherently different from those of a natural system [20, 70–72].

Ecological theory combined with political ecology affords more insight on forest transition theory. Mansfield et al. [8] argue that forest transition theories "assume that the experience of the North reflects a general, desirable process that should be encouraged to 'diffuse' to developing economies" [8]. Instead, political ecology calls for a recognition of the placespecific factor that led to uneven patterns of development, production, and consumption [8]. Although Chile is often celebrated as a case of forest recovery [73], it is a case of tree cover increase, and this fact should not be ignored when designing policy recommendations for other countries, as it might shape the future of land use and its governance [73]. As mentioned above, the "success" of the afforestation policy was mainly the result of the larger changes rooted in specific events of the political and social history of Chile. Moreover, given the current situation, tree farming seems irreversible, highlighting the nonreversible nature of socio-ecological systems (Section 2). Forest recovery assessments must differentiate tree cover from forest cover, while also considering forest transitions as context dependent.
