Native or exotic plantations: Thoughts about the environmental impacts in Chile

Abstract

This work presents the need to reorient and diversify afforestation, reforestation, rehabilitation and/or restoration through the use of native species, to recover forests and ecosystems closer to their natural state. This need is based on changes to the global disturbance patterns, the necessity to develop adaptation and mitigation actions to climate change, the conservation of threatened species and the demands of civil society organizations and researchers. For that purpose, background information is presented, regarding environmental changes produced by the establishment of plantations of exotic tree species respect to the native forest, with the purpose of promoting afforestation, reforestation and restoration projects through the use of native tree species.