The inhabitants of the monte in Puyuhuapi and Cerro Castillo: local practices in foreign and prohibited forests

Abstract

This article analyzes the current relationship between the local inhabitants of Puyuhuapi and Cerro Castillo –the XI^th region of Aysén– with the native forest (monte). It describes the diverse local practices and knowledges that materially and symbolically link the forest with the communities, showing the alive relationship between the two. Putting this relationship in the contemporary context, we see that it is marked and stressed by a series of commodification policies of the nature of green capitalism, such as: changes in land ownership, tourism associated with protected areas, regulations regarding the use of forest resources and conservationist ideas that permeate all the above. Thus, they face different ways of conceiving the human-monte relationship, giving rise to a silent dispute over the material and symbolic appropriation of the forest.