Petitpas David, Robert Claude; (2024) Human-Tree Relationships, Nature Ontologies and Conservation Politics: The Case of Pewen Tree in Chile. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This PhD explores the politics of pewen tree (Araucaria araucana) conservation in Chile and how these are shaped by different understandings of nature and human-nature relations. Embedded within the political ecology of conservation and informed by relational approaches from environmental humanities and ontological politics, the thesis explores these debates through an in-depth example from a less widely researched field, namely tree conservation. Pewen is an iconic tree in Chile, with the highest level of legal protection. It is present in the temperate rain forest of Southern Chile and Argentina, and it can reach 50 meters high and more than 1000 years old. For Pewenche indigenous peoples, pewen is a sacred tree and a basic means of subsistence, mainly, but not only, because of its nutritious seeds (i.e. piñones). The research is based on qualitative methods: interviews with government officials, ecologists, geneticists, and Pewenche; participatory observation in workshops and meetings; field visits to pewen forests with relevant actors; and a review of policy documents, public letters and newspapers. Fieldwork was conducted between 2017 and 2018, when two key events took place: the national reclassification of pewen conservation status and the start of the Pewen National Conservation Plan. The analysis unfolds through three sections. First, it explores the politics of pewen reclassification demonstrating how the process was shaped by cultural and political meanings ascribed to species status in the assessments. Second, it explores the relationships between Pewenche and pewen as a process of becoming-with, showing how a local pewen ontology is enacted from the interaction between Pewenche and pewen in ways that challenges dominant conservation dichotomies. Third, it develops an analysis of the ways in which different human-nature relations shape pewen conservation, comparing three approaches to this (ecologists, geneticists and Pewenche) and examining how these are embedded in unequal power relations.

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