Statement of the APG23 delegation at the United Nations during the interactive dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the theme "Laws, policies, judicial decisions, and other measures taken by States to achieve the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples".
To see all the interventions: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k18/k1849bhm3y

Intervention of the APG23 delegation at the United Nations during the annual roundtable dedicated to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on the theme "Laws, policies, judicial decisions, and other measures adopted by States to achieve the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" during the 57th session of the Human Rights Council.
To see all the interventions: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k19m9xl7lf

The road from Temuco to Concepción is a tarmac river that runs along pine and eucalyptus woods.
A stretch of Pan- American Highway that twists and turns among plantations of trees for the wood and cellulose production, mostly monocultures managed by big forestry companies.
The continuous and monotonous succession of trees is very often abruptly interrupted by a few hectares of barren land, a completely bare brown desert.
In the background, you can see stacks of logs ready to be transported.
It seems to observe a battlefield: the ground looks turned over by furrows and jagged holes and all around carcasses of branches lie on the ground lifeless.
Closing your eyes you can imagine the machinery making noise, the workers screaming and the wood falling down, shaking the ground from the foundations.
So much noise and then nothing more: miles of land deprived of life that used to cover it and a grim silence of death.
A few meters away, another field appears where new bashful trees have just been planted.
They will have time to grow a few meters before they will be sacrificed too, defenceless victims of a never-ending war.
This is the legacy of the forestry industry on the morphology of the territory: a legacy made up of extractivism, silence and rubble.

The situation of the Mapuche people ("people of the land") in Chile is very complex and sensitive.
As native population, the Mapuche have the right to recognition and respect for their cultural identity, their language, their traditions, and their history.
However, the latter has always been marked by conflicts with the Chilean state and assimilation policies.
The Mapuche are the only native people in Chile who have managed to resist the invasion by the Spanish colonizers. For centuries they have been fighting for the recovery and claim of the territory that is rightfully theirs.
The main conflict concerns, in particular, the control and management of the wallmapu ("all Mapuche territory"), rich in natural resources.
Mining companies and multinational corporations have often ignored the rights of the Mapuche, thus leading to a series of riots and protests.
At the same time, the national policies of economic development, modernization and alignment to European and Western standards have neglected the needs and demands of the Mapuche people, causing social and economic inequalities.
Within this framework we find four companies (Norwegian and Danish) that produce feed for salmons in Pargua, province of P.to Montt, southern Chile.