Jorge Felez-Bernal: Pyro-geography and Geomatics as a Means to Engage with Communities Affected by Forest Fires

In this episode of Smart Forests Radio, we talk with Jorge Felez-Bernal. Jorge is a Geographer, with a postgraduate degree in Environmental Engineering and a Master in Geographic Information Technologies for Spatial Planning. Since 2018, he is pursuing a PhD program in Spatial Planning and Environment, at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. In 2009 he left his native Spain to settle in Concepción, Chile . There he has worked as a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the University of Concepción. In this institution he is also the director of the Diploma in Geographic Information Technologies for Land Management . In the interview, Jorge tells us that he has developed projects for different entities of the Chilean State, linking the environment with technical assistance. In this way, he has been able to verify the national reality of socio-environmental problems related to land use planning. His projects have included a register of indigenous land petitions in the provinces of Arauco, Malleco, Cautín and Valdivia. This has allowed him to understand in greater depth the implications and consequences of the Chilean forestry model , especially those related to fires and fire as an instrument of territorial dispossession.

Interviewer: Pablo Gonzalez Rivas, Paula Tiara Torres and Jennifer Gabrys

Producer: Harry Murdoch

Listen to it on Apple and Spotify.

Language note: this interview takes place in Spanish.