ABSTRACT
Brazil, Chile and Mexico together account for 14 per cent of total global forest extent. Forests and forest practices within and across these three countries are very diverse, reflecting some of the diversity of Latin American environments and societies. They range from the temperate pine oak forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, through the world’s largest expanse of lowland, tropical rainforest in the Amazon Basin (the majority of which is in Brazil), to the succession of 12 major forest types located across Chile’s 39° of latitude; they also include extensive eucalypt and pine plantations in southern Brazil and central Chile. For much of the 20th century, government policies focused on economic development facilitated by rapid depletion of native forests in these countries. More recently, with the advent of a ‘sustainable forest management’ paradigm, each country has pursued different trajectories for forest conservation and economic development, adding to their environmental and socio-political diversity.
