Respuestas prácticas a barreras políticas. Factores que limitan la adaptación transformadora al cambio climático en Lonquimay, Chile

Abstract

Recent studies show that Indigenous Peoples can contribute to transformative adaptation - the reduction of long-term vulnerability by profound and system-wide changes of the factors and paradigms that construct it. However, the factors that constrain communities' actions, and thus their contributions to such transformation, have yet to be discussed in depth. This article analyses the transformative potential of local adaptations to climate change in Pehuenche communities living in Lonquimay, southern Chile, through the framework of the three spheres for sustainable transformation. Through 20 semi-structured interviews, three focus group discussions, and 75 individual and 74 household surveys, we found that communities are highly impacted by climate change. While the Pehuenche try to respond to these impacts, existing power dynamics and structural inequalities embedded in the national political and economic system implicate that their responses are mainly short-sighted and aimed at generating transformations in the practical sphere. Some of their strategies even reinforce capitalist structures and unsustainable external dependencies. The barriers the Pehuenche face highlight the urgent need for us, as a society, to address the root causes of inequity that produce vulnerability and limit the transformability of Indigenous communities in the first place.