Subsidy Accountability and Biodiversity Loss Drivers: Following the Money in the Chilean Silvoagricultural Sector

Abstract

In Chile, promotion of activities in the silvoagricultural sector has been made through the implementation of Instruments of Productive Promotion, which are governmental interventions oriented to increase productive systems by applying economic incentives. However, its use has not been exempted of criticism due to the poor articulation and coordination between the programs and because their implementation has lacked a coordinated territorial approach. Chile has committed to different international frameworks to protect biodiversity, including the Convention on Biological Diversity that, through the Aichi targets, aimed to either eliminate or reform incentives, including subsidies, to minimize negative impacts and to manage agriculture in a sustainable manner. Allocation of IPPs used to finance field work (IPP-FFWs) at the silvoagricultural sector was analyzed, including amounts granted, use of the funds, and geographical distribution; they explored eventual links with biodiversity trends, including identified drivers of biodiversity loss. We found that, in the last two decades, IPP-FFWs have more than quintupled; the activities funded relate to main anthropogenic factors associated with ecosystems deterioration, including land use change and plantations with exotic species; the funding mostly occurs where most relevant Chilean terrestrial biodiversity features concentrate and where most ecosystems that have been classified under risk are located.