Symbolic Chilean flag flies in a pine plantation. Photo by Orin Langelle

A photo essay by Orin Langelle on the damaging impacts of Chilean wildfires was recently published in Spanish by PuroChamuyo.com.

Langelle, Strategic Communications Director for Global Justice Ecology Project, was part of an international delegation from the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees that arrived in Sanitago, Chile on 20 March 2017 to document the social and ecological impacts of industrial tree plantations in the country, and their link to the recent wildfires that were the worst in Chile’s history. The fires started in January 2017.

It is estimated that eleven people were killed, 1, 500 houses destroyed, thousands displaced and over 700,000 acres decimated. The delegation was sponsored by OLCA (Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales). I accompanied the delegation as a photojournalist and a participant. The opinions in the photo essay are Langelle’s and not necessarily the views of the delegation or the participants.

Purochamuyo.com is published by Colectivo Editorial Crisis and Asociación Civil Argentina, which work to contribute to the production and dissemination of plural thought, arts and contemporary social events.

All of the images from the photo essay, linked here in English, were taken between 21 – 30 March 2017.  See the Purochamuyo version in Spanish here.