Wineries in the Itata and Cauquenes Valleys: Local flavors, multiple dispossessions and care for the commons as pluriverses for (neo)peasant climate resilience

Abstract

Within the framework of the global climate crisis and its specific effect of the mega-drought affecting dryland agriculture in the central-southern area of Chile, this study analyzes peasant wineries as a historical and collaborative commons, with traditional and agroecological knowledge and practices, which is organized and represents an important pluriverse for climate resilience. This takes place despite the threat of dispossession and multiple enclosures associated with the advance of industrial-level wineries and corporate forest plantations. The text analyzes the ways that small winegrowers in the Itata and Cauquenes Valleys protect their heritage and income by integrating interdisciplinary contributions from geology (evaluating climate change manifestations in their valleys), social sciences (observing the care and production practices of the wine-growing commons), and law (analyzing possible legal frameworks to develop in this common defense). All these actions are integrated from an analytical framework of political ecology and climate justice. In these experiences, we recognize multiple elements of climate resilience adapted to the agroecological conditions of dryland farming, showing that wineries are an activity which can protect the local territory and provide climate justice, contributing to protecting cultural heritage and socioenvironmental well-being in communities.