ABSTRACT
Vulnerability to climate change is a socially and historically constructed process where Indigenous Peoples are most affected. From an ethnographic approach, this chapter analyses the social construction of the Mapuche-Pehuenche People’s climate vulnerability. The study included interviews, participant observation, and a review of primary sources. First, the chapter presents the historical relationship between the Chilean State and the Mapuche People, mediated by a conflict derived from the impacts of forestry extractivism. It also outlines the main policies that address this conflict, emphasising its environmental implications. States policies have criminalised Mapuche’s demands and reinforced communities’ dependency on welfare. Together, extractivism impacts and state policy have determined a scenario of contextual vulnerability that constrains the resilience of the communities, which are already facing and trying to respond to the various impacts of climate change. The implementation of the current climate policy, designed based on the commitments assumed by Chile in the multilateral context, takes place in this context. However, current policy design does not question the structural causes that determine climate vulnerability, including extractivism, socio-ecological inequality, and exclusion from decision-making processes. Analysing the factors that produce vulnerability allows for rethinking climate policy from a more ethical approach that can promote the transformation of institutions.
