Meet the FABLE Chile team
The team is led by the Forestry Institute of Chile (INFOR). INFOR is a forestry research center that belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture. INFOR aims to create value for the Chilean forest sector, and it has a close relationship with the industry, environmental NGOs, academia and policy makers.
Models used: FABLE Calculator.
Transforming food and land-use systems in Chile
Chile is an export-oriented country that, despite its small agricultural area (most of the country is desert, mountains and cold steppe), produces a significant share of the global consumption of several fruits. It ranks as the second-largest producer of cherries, fourth in plums, eighth in grapes and peaches, tenth in apples, and eleventh in avocados. Chile is also a major wine producer (7th globally) and plays an important role in the production of salmon (second only to Norway) and forest products, ranking tenth in wood-pulp production, with some Chilean companies among the largest timber exporters worldwide.
While Chile is not relevant in terms of local consumption, as its population of about 19 million people represents less than 0,3% of the global population, it is relevant in terms of the total agro-forestry production, most of which is consumed abroad.
Agriculture and forestry contribute nearly 4.5% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), and nearly 1,5 million people work in these activities (direct workers), one-third of which corresponds to seasonal migrant-workers (mostly in the harvesting season).
Chile faces numerous food system challenges. One of these relates to the high price of many agricultural products, which creates problems in terms of affordability and maintaining healthy diets. For many people eating ultra-processed food is much more convenient than buying lettuce or tomatoes. Because of this, Chile has one the highest rates of obesity in Latin America.
Over the past four decades, the forestry sector has grown significantly in the country, largely based on tree crops, mainly eucalyptus and pine plantations. Some of these plantations have been located on agricultural lands, wetlands and native forests, with significant social and environmental impacts. Spillover effects of this process concerning agriculture (production and prices), water availability, carbon balance, and biodiversity have not been adequately studied.
Climate change has reduced precipitation and intensified heatwaves in the central zone of the country, where most of these productive activities are concentrated, making climate change an important factor shaping agro-forestry production. At the same time, the potential of native forests as providers of ecosystem services, including timber production, is also a key consideration.
Key national objectives and targets
Chile's key national climate objectives, anchored in the 2022 Framework Law on Climate Change, aim for carbon neutrality and climate resilience by 2050. Major goals include peaking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2025, reaching a 95 MtCO2eq level by 2030, sourcing 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030, and phasing out coal-fired power plants by 2040.
Other key national objectives include:
Research interests in food and land-use
We are interested in including forestry in the FABLE modelling work, as a sector that produces multiple goods and services (biodiversity is just one of them). Currently, forests are only considered as a “GIS layer” (a land-use) about which crops, or stockbreeding can get expanded, with consequences in terms of carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. However, forestry includes aspects like timber harvesting (silvicultural methods), wildfires/pests and tree regeneration that can have a huge influence on the land and food systems.
Publications