The (de-)contextualization of geographical knowledge in forest fire risk management in Chile as a challenge for governance

Abstract

The Chilean economy and society are confronted with increasing risks from forest fires. Individual rather than collective risk management solutions predominate. Large forest companies reduce the probability that forest fires affect their tree plantations with management routines of hierarchical order. Additionally, they purchase insurance policies to protect themselves from disastrous economic losses. They diversify and externalize their risk. These mechanisms are not available to other stakeholders in Chilean forest regions who experience forest fires mainly as negative external effects. The paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of interacting hierarchical and market governance forms of risk management and calls for a deeper geographical approach of risk governance. It reveals that detailed geographical knowledge on forest fire risks is explicitly decontextualized and even ignored in current risk management practices. Knowledge of the causes and effects of forest fire risks, that is important for a broader approach of risk governance, is lost in the process.