Reducing volcanic risk: who, how and for what? Anthropological approach to the perspectives of Mapuche communities in southern Chile
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Francisca Vergara-Pinto
Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo Regional y Políticas Públicas, Universidad de Los Lagos Chile
franverggara@gmail.com
Author(s):
A study is presented that delves into volcanic risk from a sociocultural perspective and a qualitative methodology, through the analysis of the perceptions of rural and indigenous inhabitants who live near two active volcanic systems in southern Chile. The objective is to understand how volcanic risk is perceived and how it can be reduced at local scales, based on the analysis of impacts, opportunities and gaps in partially geographically isolated rural territories, and to recognize elements that contribute to reduce disaster risk. The results show that in these rural territories, characterized by dynamics that include community relations, human-environmental interactions and economic practices linked to the volcanic environment, the presence of volcanoes becomes into an ambivalence of dangers and opportunities. Therefore, the populations that inhabit these spaces have volcanic risks incorporated in their livelihoods (Marín et al., 2020). Likewise, it is evident that people who live with volcanic risk, far from opting to abandon the mountain environment and their rural livelihoods, seek that the structures of opportunities and development processes reach their territories, already isolated in multiple dimensions. This trend has also been evidenced in other volcanic environments (e.g. Bachri et al., 2015). Based on this, the potential for local risk management (LRM) in the study area (so far absent) as a strategy based on a permanent process of forecasting not only volcanic hazards, but also the socio-environmental vulnerability of populations is discussed, understanding that the combination of these is the root cause of disaster risk. LRM would pay attention to the cultural frameworks from which dangerous and safe are distinguished. It would also address the dual nature of volcanoes (in terms of daily life-crisis, dangers-benefits, knowledge-uncertainties, etc.) and the duality of external (institutional, scientific) and community perspectives on volcanic risk. Within management, I suggest that the notion of resonance between different logics should be highlighted as an underlying factor, to promote preventive actions that recognize the local culture, promoting a sustainable and integrated DRR in the territorial dynamics of volcanic environments.
Bachri, S., Stötter, J., Sartohadi, J., 2015. The calamity of eruptions, or an eruption of benefits? Mt. Bromo human–volcano system a case study of an open-risk perception. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 15, 277–290.
Marín, A., Vergara-Pinto, F., Prado, F., Farías, C. (2020). Living near volcanoes: Scoping the gaps between the local community and volcanic experts in southern Chile. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 398, 1-10.
Deep cultures of disaster: The significance of the anthropological perspective for understanding the interstices of hazards and disaster