Native forest policy in Chile: understanding sectoral process dynamics in a country with an emerging economy

Native forests in Chile are subject to an ongoing process of degradation and destruction. In 1992, the Chilean government proposed a new law aimed at the recovery and sustainable management of native forests. However, the proposal, although amended several times has not yet been transformed into law. Powerful private interest groups such as the forest industry and environmental organisations have successfully advocated against one or more of the different proposals. Notwithstanding, recent developments suggest that the worst of the process might be over and a new law may be passed in the near future. Drawing on concepts from policy sciences (advocacy coalition framework, critical sub-sector model), the present work attempts to explain the dynamics in the policy formation process as a result of the clash of fundamentally opposing policy beliefs evident in a critical issue niche or critical sub-sector that blocked changes in the overall policy sub-system for years. However, the increasing availability of private policy instruments (e.g. forest certification) allowed for the removal of this issue from the discussion about statutory policy options and thus relieved the process from a long-standing deadlock.