Abstract

Traps in social-ecological systems depict situations where human actors and institutions interact with ecological dynamics and unintentionally steer development into vulnerable paths difficult to reverse. We use the social-ecological trap (SET) metaphor and path-dependence analysis to describe the emerge of trap situations in two contrasting cases: (1) Panguipulli municipality, representative of the significant land inequalities that dominate the rural landscape of southern Chile, and (2) southern king crab artisan fishery (Lithodes santolla) of the Magellan region, a semi-open access fishery of high economic value, where illegal extractions are a pressing problem. In Panguipulli, the system is caught in a “trilogy of inequalities” (land, forest, and ecosystem services) that together conform an inequality trap. Government policies surrounding land and forest tenure since the imposition of colonial rule and the modern State have interacted with other factors to concentrate economic power in large landowners, marginalize small peasants, and weaken customary management institutions. In the Magellan case, the trap could be erroneously confounded since there are no apparent human losers. As 3 years of interviews and participant observations reveal, the apparent absence of a trap rests on the confidence that “there are still resources for all” and that illegal fishing is not pressing the size of the stock.