Tree flexing: Forest politics and land struggles in the green economy

Planting trees is widely regarded as a positive contribution to combating climate change and establishing a future-proof, green economy. Yet, there is mounting evidence from many tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world that tree plantations can have multiple negative economic, social and environmental impacts. These are not always accounted for by the private and public institutions who have heavily supported the forestry sector in recent decades. This ‘tropical provocation’ reports from a recent fieldtrip to the Wallmapu, the region the Mapuche Indigenous people call their ancestral homeland. There, I saw with my own eyes that the so-called green economy does not work for Mapuche communities, as they experience extreme water shortages, wildfires and other plundering from what they regard as their territory.