ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a citizen-based movement which emerged in Valdivia, Chile, in response to the death of black swans in 2004. The case of the swans’ death gained national and international attention through Greenpeace and a Ramsar commission visit. The deaths were due to effluent from a cellulose plant which began to operate 56 kilometres north of the city of Valdivia in southern Chile. The plant belonged to the CELCO-Arauco company, the world’s second largest cellulose producer. The movement for the swans was self-funded, self-organized, and had strong local roots. It led actions against the plant and against the state for its passive role during the disaster. The chapter analyses the characteristics of the socio-environmental movement in Valdivia, the immediate and longer-term political impacts related to this movement, and the mechanisms through which these impacts were generated. Although the cellulose plant was not eliminated, the movement for the swans led to positive environmental transformations, encouraging more democratic forms of decision-making and resource governance by making visible the lack of transparency and community involvement in environmental assessment of private projects in Chile. These wider impacts are explained by both, the movement’s organization and its strategies, and the broader context in which the mobilization was developed. We conclude that social movements that fail to stop specific natural resource development projects can contribute to broader positive environmental transformations over the long term encouraging more democratic forms of decision-making and resource governance.
