I am PhD student at the UBC Department of Geography. My doctoral research focuses on the material outcomes of environmental science/politics and development practices in the temperate rainforests located in the South of Chile.
During my master’s research (2013-2015), I examined how rural water committees were facing longer periods of water shortage in Chile. The climate-induced decrease in rainfall and the industrial forest economy are prominent causes in the decreasing water yields; however, access to land and water is also highly restricted by concentration, economic speculation, and private nature conservation initiatives. Now, I attempt to investigate the ways in which the Chilean state is importing and crafting the necessary environmental science/policies for translating the temperate rainforests into a calculable entity, and how these attempts reach -or not- the material worlds of these forests, where a modern cycle of enclosures, privatizations, and legal frameworks are re-shaping the colonial-Mapuche relationship since the Chilean invasion of the south.
Before arriving to Vancouver, I lived in the South of Chile, where I studied and worked as research and teacher assistant at Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh, Valdivia). I also collaborated in projects related with rural development and small-scale forestry asked by the Ministry of Agriculture and FAO. My PhD program is supported by the Chilean Commission of Science and Technology by means of its scholarship program “Becas Chile”.
Email: fernanda.rojas.m@gmail.com