Forest industries in South American countries

This paper analyzes the performance of forest industries in South American countries. Special attention is given to the relationships that exist between the evolution of forest industries and the exploitation of natural and planted forest as well as on the role of national governments in stimulating that kind of industries. South America has large natural forest areas and excellent natural conditions for planting trees. However, forest industries have not grown in a way that permit sustainable exploitation of natural forests and improve the Gross National Product and Trade Balance of South America's countries. This paper suggests how the latter can be done better.

China\u27s Investments and Land Use in Latin America

Increased demand by China for commodities has impacted natural resources and local people in Latin America, at a time when climate change has created an urgency for sustainable practices. This report aims to contribute to a nuanced view of Chinese major investments and trade, analyzing the soy, copper, and beef industries. In many cases, it shows how unsustainability is not the result of the practices of Chinese companies but rather the nature of the resource, local legal frameworks, or global industry standards. Latin American countries must devise development plans for these industries and not rely solely on voluntary sustainability standards adopted by the private sector to preserve Latin America\u27s vulnerable ecosystems in light of climate change.https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/jgi_research/1048/thumbnail.jp

Montana Kaimin, November 19, 1975

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/studentnewspaper/7494/thumbnail.jp

The Scientist, Winter 2009

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/scientist/1003/thumbnail.jp

The Dynamics of Nestedness Predicts the Evolution of Industrial Ecosystems

In economic systems, the mix of products that countries make or export has been shown to be a strong leading indicator of economic growth. Hence, methods to characterize and predict the structure of the network connecting countries to the products that they export are relevant for understanding the dynamics of economic development. Here we study the presence and absence of industries at the global and national levels and show that these networks are significantly nested. This means that the less filled rows and columns of these networks' adjacency matrices tend to be subsets of the fuller rows and columns. Moreover, we show that nestedness remains relatively stable as the matrices become more filled over time and that this occurs because of a bias for industries that deviate from the networks' nestedness to disappear, and a bias for the missing industries that reduce nestedness to appear. This makes the appearance and disappearance of individual industries in each location predictable. We interpret the high level of nestedness observed in these networks in the context of the neutral model of development introduced by Hidalgo and Hausmann (2009). We show that, for the observed fills, the model can reproduce the high level of nestedness observed in these networks only when we assume a high level of heterogeneity in the distribution of capabilities available in countries and required by products. In the context of the neutral model, this implies that the high level of nestedness observed in these economic networks emerges as a combination of both, the complementarity of inputs and heterogeneity in the number of capabilities available in countries and required by products. The stability of nestedness in industrial ecosystems, and the predictability implied by it, demonstrates the importance of the study of network properties in the evolution of economic networks.Comment: 26 page

The Pacifican, October 20,1972

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/pacifican/2074/thumbnail.jp

Land Rights and Regime Change: Trends in Mapuche Territorial Conflict from 1970 to Present in South-Central Chile

The Mapuche people are an indigenous group located in the Southern Cone region of South America with a strong claim to their ancestral lands in south-central Chile, especially in the Araucanía region. Historically, relations between the Mapuche people and the Chilean government have been poor, marked by conflict relating to territorial claims, natural resource extraction, and violence against Mapuche activists. This paper examines both present-day and historical conflicts between the Mapuche people and the Chilean government since Salvador Allende’s presidency in 1970. I analyze how regime change and neoliberal economic policies have affected Mapuche mobilization strategies, the efficacy of these efforts, the government’s handling of environmental conflict, and economic activity that has led to overexploitation and ecosystem damage in Mapuche lands

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

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) can be defined as a socio-ecological system (SES): social, economic, and political processes in interaction with ecological processes result in a given land use trend. Instead of forest recovery, Chile has been identified as a case of a forest transition dominated by commercial plantations. This chapter aims to examine the process LULCC in Chile from a socio-ecological perspective. Drawing upon frameworks of SES by Scheffer et al., this chapter analyzes the adaptive capacity of LULCC in Chile. First, SES concepts are presented. The next section is a summary of the political and economic process that underpinned the plantation transition in Chile and its consequences on the landscape. In light of SES theory, the 518,174 hectares wildfire observed in 2017 is a consequence of the lack of adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, Chile’s LULCC is unlikely to change due to abovementioned dynamics. Finally, this chapter discusses the implications for policy making and the global forest transition discussion. In summary, using the case of Chile, this chapter aims to contribute to SES theory and forest policy, seeking sustainable futures based on a systemic view