Chile Groups Denounce Impacts of Mega-Fires

January 22, 2026, Source: Resumen.Cl

Organizations in Biobío are organizing themselves in response to the emergency caused by mega-fires

Faced with the catastrophe we are once again experiencing in the Biobío region due to the mega-forest fires that began in the second half of January and have since destroyed communities, watersheds, and ecosystems, particularly in the towns of Penco, Lirquén, Florida, and Concepción, we are outraged. Therefore, the self-organized territorial, cultural, and socio-environmental organizations denounce the human, non-human, and material losses that fill us with grief today as the predictable and foretold result of the combination of climate change, monoculture forestry, and the absence of sustainable territorial planning on a human scale; a situation fueled by the indolence, negligence, and greed of political and business actors.

This new catastrophe that has plunged the country into mourning, and which is being felt especially acutely in working-class neighborhoods, is not an isolated event. We have witnessed similar disasters in the past, such as the 2017 fires in the Valparaíso, Maule, Ñuble, and Biobío regions, where more than 25,000 hectares were consumed by flames, 19 lives were lost, and there was incalculable damage to other forms of life; or the 2023 fires, which claimed 24 lives, with the Ñuble, Biobío, and Araucanía regions being the hardest hit. The most recent tragedy was the 2024 fire in Valparaíso, in which 134 people died, and many of the affected families still lack permanent homes to rebuild their lives.

Forest fires are socio-environmental disasters whose psychological and community impact transcends material and economic losses, affecting families and entire communities in multiple ways, increasing their vulnerability. Evidence from megafires in Chile suggests that the transformation of landscapes into exotic, flammable plantations (pine/eucalyptus) can influence the magnitude and intensity of fires. Based on this certainty, organizations and individuals have been demanding for years territorial planning that protects the urban-rural interface and biodiversity, limiting forest expansion and its scale in the territories.

Therefore, in January 2024, the 11th Local Court for the Rights of Nature, Biobío Case, heard testimonies from communities and Mapuche people affected by the 2023 fires and confirmed the impacts of industrial forestry and the fires that ravaged more than 479,000 hectares. This court requested the restoration of ecosystems, a moratorium on the expansion of invasive monocultures, indigenous consultation and participation, and urgent environmental reforms such as declaring Rights for the Biobío River, Cerro Cayumanqui, the Nahuelbuta Mountain Range, and the Queule River.

Despite this ethical, territorial, and socio-ecological warning, the government has insisted on favoring the industrial forestry model. An example of this is the Biobío Industrial Strengthening Plan, which is implemented through a strategy of 32 measures to “accelerate” investments in and for public and private projects so that they are “implemented as quickly as possible.” This includes a “Strategy to increase forest plantations in the region.”

In light of this, we demand:

1. Comprehensive reparation to people and communities affected by the fires, including material, psychosocial and community reparation, with a territorial and rights-based approach.

2. Direct compensation to affected families, freezing of construction material prices and granting of rental subsidies until permanent housing solutions are available.

3. Immediate planning and implementation of safe housing solutions, especially for residents of urban-rural interface zones and fire victims, incorporating: a) Adequate and clearly marked evacuation routes. b) Firebreaks built to standards appropriate for megafire scenarios and constructed preventively. c) Effective protection of water bodies and sensitive areas.

4. Immediate halt to the processing and installation of additional extractive projects, in particular rare earth mining companies or other high-impact industries, in territories affected by recent fires.

5. Mandatory and immediate incorporation of protection plans for the urban-rural interface and protected areas, through protection rings or buffer zones free of forest monocultures, with a minimum effective clearance (greater than 50 meters).

6. Requirement of firebreaks within large forest plantations, designed and maintained to stop or slow the spread of megafires, with ongoing public oversight. Holding industry responsible for the effects of fires within their properties.

7. Design and maintenance of resilient landscapes as a core prevention strategy, prioritizing landscape diversity, ecological restoration, and reducing fuel loads. Incorporating prohibitions on industrial or extractive land-use changes that endanger health, life, and ecosystems.

8. Implementation of policies for the control and eradication of invasive exotic species, especially escaped plantation trees that affect reserves, national parks and native ecosystems, linked to comprehensive ecological restoration plans.

9. Halting the expansion of forest plantations, as they constitute a proven risk factor for the occurrence, spread and severity of forest fires.

10. Transformation of current regulations, incorporating dense pine and eucalyptus plantations into the environmental assessment system, considering the context of climate change as a permanent threat to life.

11. Declaration of the regions between Valparaíso and La Araucanía as “Zones Saturated with Forest Extractivism”, taking into account the cumulative, extensive and persistent impacts on human communities and ecosystems.

12. Review and modification of regional and local development and land-use planning plans and strategies, with effective participation of the public, private and organized civil society sectors, prioritizing the integral well-being of people, the conservation of biodiversity and the structural reduction of risk factors associated with forest fires.

13. Guarantee of territorial planning processes with an ecosystemic, intercultural and socio-environmental justice approach, which incorporate the recommendations emanating from ethical and territorial instances, and which are built from the territories.

14. Demand that forestry companies fully finance the repair of the damage caused, both to human communities and to biodiversity, with special emphasis on the companies Arauco, Mininco and CMPC.

15. Implementation of comprehensive socio-ecological restoration and regeneration plans, with business and state funding, aimed at the recovery of basins, degraded ecosystems and territories affected by recurring fires.

We don’t believe in greenwashing or the supposed sustainability that forestry and mining companies use to build their public image. Their policy of unchecked exploitation of nature, territories, and land is responsible for depriving us of our future and that of future generations.

We stand in solidarity with and send our support to all the people, families, and communities who are once again experiencing moments of anguish and pain, and we urge them to organize, denounce those directly and indirectly responsible for these catastrophes, and demand responsible use of land, water, and nature.

Signatory organizations:

1. Penco Park Corporation – Biobío Region
2. Alliance for the Rights of Nature – Biobío Region
3. Network for Overcoming the Forestry Model – Biobío Region
4. Manzana Verde Foundation – Biobío Region
5. Patagual Valley Defense Committee – Biobío Region
6. Chorera Coordinator – Biobío Region
7. Chile Without Ecocide Foundation – Biobío Region 8.
We Kimün NGO – Biobío Region
9. Pongo Foundation – Biobío Region
10. Biobío Wetlands Network – Biobío Region
11. FRONTERA SUR Cultural Center – Biobío Region
12. El Árbol Foundation – Biobío Region
13. Chiguayante North Riverbank Defense – Biobío Region
14. Mawizako Corporation – Biobío Region
15. Environmental Defense NGO – Biobío Region
16. Latin American Observatory of Conflicts OLCA Environmental Organizations – Biobío Region
17. Casa en Vuelo – Biobío Region
18. Libros al Aire – Biobío Region
19. Las Manuelas Muralistas – Biobío Region
20. ReVerdes Foundation – Biobío Region
21. Surtropías Network – Biobío Region
22. Soma Publications – Biobío Region
23. Casa 916 – Biobío Region
24. Weche Newen Corporation – Biobío Region
25. ARAUCO Community – Biobío Region
26. Conciencia Sur NGO – Biobío Region
27. Dante Campana Memory Committee – Biobío Region
28. Puchacay Neighborhood Assembly – Biobío Region
29. Pewma Education with Nature – Biobío Region
30. Sacar la Voz Biobío – Biobío Region
31. More Trees and Less Trash Environmental Corporation – Biobío Region
32. Víctor Jara Cultural Center of Boca Sur – Biobío Region

33. Chacay Forests – Biobío Region
34. CETSUR NGO – Biobío Region
35. Student Volunteer Brigade – Biobío Region
36. La Escoba Workshop House – Biobío Region
37. Pichimapu Wetland – Biobío Region
38. Walkün Coordinator – Biobío Region
39. Junquillar Group – Biobío Region
40. Activate Your Present With Memory – Biobío Region
41. Let’s Recover the Vegas de Coliumo Litril Wetland – Biobío Region
42. Reverdecer Foundation – Biobío Region
43. Tomé Communal Council for Heritage – Biobío Region
44. Tomé Territorial Coordinator – Biobío Region
45. Mesa 8 Collective – Biobío Region
46. We Pu Repu Indigenous Association – Biobío Region
47. Movement 48. Talcahuano Socio-Environmental Center – Biobío Region
49. Toda la Teoría del Universo Cultural Center – Biobío Region
50. Redcultural Plan b – Biobío Region
51. Transónica – Biobío Region
52. Proyecto Vermut – Biobío Region
53. Grupo Suple – Biobío Region
54. Discos Cetáceos –
Biobío Region 55. Octava Rebelde
– Biobío Region 56. Libélula Coja – Biobío Region
57. Taller de Amigos – Gestión Cultural – Biobío Region
58. Mutual Bautista Van Schouwen – Biobío
Region 59. Asociación Enredadera Redes de Acción para la Innovación Pública – Biobío
Region 60. Comunidad Sorda de la Región del Bio – Bio – Biobío Region
61. Asociación Regional de Sordos de Concepción – Biobío Region
62. Club Deportivo de Sordos de Concepción – Biobío Region
62. Nuestras Manos Cultural Center – Biobío Region
63. Heritage in Dialogue – Biobío Region
64. Espiral Sur Foundation – Biobío Region
65. Movement for Teacher Unity Biobío – Biobío Region
66. Anatrap Biobío (National Association of Heritage Workers) – Biobío Region
67. Let’s Protect Lo Méndez – Biobío Region
68. Tierrasur Medicinal Cooperative – Biobío Region
69. Save Lake Nongüen Citizen Movement – Biobío Region
70. RAMA Creative Network – Biobío Region

71. Labcrimen – Biobío Region
72. Agrega Raíces Comunitarias – Biobío Region
73. Asociación de Propagadores de Flora Nativa Peuma Florida – Biobío Region
74. Ruderales – Biobío Region
75. Sindicato de Oficios Varios Frontera Biobío – Solidaridad Obrera – Biobío Region
76. Cicloturismo San Pedro de la Paz – Biobío Region
77. Teatro Resistencia – Biobío Region
78. Comité de Seguridad Social, Productiva y Medioambiental, San Ramón Quillón – Ñuble Region
79. Oficios de Nahuelbuta – Biobío Region
80. Leslie Fernández Barrera – Biobío Region
81. Bichas del Biobío – Biobío Region
82. Pan y Rosas Teresa Flores – La Araucanía Region
83. Consejo Ecológico de Molina – Maule Region
84. Mataquito Downriver – Maule Region
85. La Rueca Foundation – Arica and Parinacota Region
86. ATTAC Argentina – Arica and Parinacota Region
87. Manos con Memoria Cooperative – Arica and Parinacota Region
88. Ancestral Circle – Arica and Parinacota Region
89. Tocopilla Digna Coordinator – Antofagasta Region
90. Limache Human Rights Commission – Valparaíso Region
91. Aconcagua Veterinary Operations – Valparaíso Region
92. Lakitas Akunkawa Resistance – Valparaíso Region
93. Wanaku Akunkawa – Valparaíso Region
94. Ngenko Foundation – Valparaíso Region
95. Millankura San Antonio Socio-Environmental Organization – Valparaíso Region
96. Akunkawa Defense Coordinator – Valparaíso Region
97. Rodelillo Community Center – Region of 98.
Quilpué Human Rights and Environmental Committee – Valparaíso Region
99. Endemic Foundation – Valparaíso Region
100. Galvarino Mapuche Territorial Council – La Araucanía Region
101. Mashue Rural Drinking Water Committee – Los Ríos Region
102. Island Women’s Assembly for Water – Los Lagos Region
103. Huillín Island – Los Lagos Region
104. Tarahuillin Movement – Los Lagos Region
105. Huillines Without Borders – Los Lagos Region
106. Maritorias Collective – Los Lagos Region
107. Ecosystems NGO – Metropolitan Region

108. Radio La Voz de Paine – Metropolitan Region
109. Radio Humedales – Metropolitan Region
110. Modatima Chile – Metropolitan Region
111. Casa Memoria José Domingo Cañas – Metropolitan Region
112. AMME – Metropolitan Region
113. Comparsa de Tumbe Cardo Negro – Metropolitan Region
114. Junta de Vecinos Trinidad N°13 – Metropolitan Region
115. Sindicato Sintrac Democrático – Metropolitan Region
116. Federación de sindicatos Cerrillos Maipú – Metropolitan Region
117. ¡Radio Miño! Memory and Workers’ Action – Metropolitan Region
118. Recadungun – Metropolitan Region
119. Juntos Compramos Supply Cooperative – Metropolitan Region
120. Maximiliano Rodríguez Community Kitchen – Metropolitan Region
121. Paine Communal Environmental Committee – Metropolitan Region
122. Chilean Puppeteers Network – Metropolitan Region
123. Quillahuaira Andean Dance Collective – Metropolitan Region
124. Workers’ Assembly – Metropolitan Region
125. Ad Llallin Mapuche Indigenous Women’s Association – Metropolitan Region
126. Cimunidis – Metropolitan Region
127. El Bosque San Bernardo Environmental Coordinator – Metropolitan Region
128. Reparemos – Metropolitan Region
129. Isla Aventura – Metropolitan Region
130. Ethics Commission Against Torture – Metropolitan Region
131. VientoSur Collective – Metropolitan Region
132. Latin America and the Caribbean Platform Better Without Free Trade Agreements – Metropolitan Region
133. Chile Better Without Free Trade Agreements – Metropolitan Region
134. Minga for the Cause – Metropolitan Region
135. Julio Araya Toro (writer and poet) – Italy