Chile's Native Forests Increasingly Threatened
6/17/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Following are two excellent pieces documenting the severe forest
management crisis facing Chile put out by a local environmental
organization, Defensores del Bosque Chileno. They are networked here
on the request of the group. Their primary mission is preserving
Chile's remaining primary old-growth forests which, as elsewhere, are
being voraciously threatened by excessive forest harvest. This is
particularly important because Chile is a biogeographical island with
more than 90 percent of animal and plant life being endemic. Clearly
temperate forests are as threatened, if not more so, than tropical
rainforests; thus this lists emphasis upon the forest crisis. The
first item is a short introduction to Chile's forest situation;
followed by a longer, more detailed document.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 14:59:38 -0700
X-Sender: bosquech@entelchile.net
To: grbarry@students.wisc.edu
From: Defensores del Bosque Chileno
Subject: Chile's native forests
DEFENSORES DEL BOSQUE CHILENO
Antonia Lopez del Bello 024
Providencia
Santiago, Chile
tel. (56-2) 737-4280, fax 777-5065
email: bosquech@entelchile.net
May 20, 1997
Dear Friend,
We would like to introduce ourselves and ask for your
participation.
Defensores del Bosque Chileno (Defenders of the Chilean
Forests, DBCh), founded in 1993, is a non-governmental organization
working to preserve Chile's remaining primary old-growth forests, and
to catalyze national forest policies that conserve and restore our
secondary forests.
Chile's native forests are one of the world's natural
treasures. They include one of the world's last two extensive
temperate rainforests. Because Chile is a biogeographical island, more
than 90 percent of animal and plant life in Chile's forests are
endemic. Chile's forests also contain the highest species diversity
among the world's temperate forests. Vast tracts of pristine ancient
forest remain, some including the native alerce - a giant tree, and
the second-oldest living species on Earth ranging up to 4,000 years
old.
The native forest patrimony of Chile though is rapidly
disappearing. According to a Central Bank of Chile report in late
1995, with current methods of exploitation all of Chile's native
forests will be deforested in twenty years. One of the main causes of
native deforestation is the export of wood chips to almost entirely
Japan's paper and pulp industry. Chile has become the only country in
the world that makes low value wood chips its primary product from
native forests. The other principal causes of deforestation are
intensive use of firewood and the conversion of native forests into
exotic-species tree plantations. Tree plantations receive exorbitant
government subsidies while no incentives exist for native
reforestation and sustainable forestry. Instead the government of
Chile is attempting to weaken national forest law, while also entering
international trade agreements to expand exports which are 90 percent
based on Chile's shrinking natural resources.
Through education, research and activism, Defensores del
Bosque Chileno has established itself as the leading advocate for
Chile's forests. Our media campaign has received fantastic attention
in the print and broadcast media. We raised funds to create the Alto
Huemul Nature Sanctuary, a rare 35,000 hectare roble forest in central
Chile. We have a legal team researching and lobbying for a new native
forest law. Our "Voice of the Forest" seasonal newspaper is
distributed to more than 5,000 members and decision-makers. Last year
we began our BOSQUEDUCA education program with the support of the Fund
of the Americas in seven communities of southern Chile and it was
judged a complete success by the Ministry of Education.
In Chile, we regularly collaborate on our campaigns with other
groups through the Alliance for the Forests, a Chilean federation of
more than 30 organizations. Defensores del Bosque has also developed
a network of Native Forest Action Groups in all 12 regions of Chile.
However we believe with the lengthy and continous gridlock among
Chile's political leaders concerning forest protection policies
coupled with the exponential growth in deforestation, it is past time
for an S.O.F. (Save Our Forests) to the global community. In addition
to trying to create ecologically-sustainable forest policies and
institutions in Chile, our international campaign has two main
projects.
1) End Export of Wood Chips to Japan
Wood chips are the primary product from Chilean native
forests, and a principal cause of our native forest destruction.
Japan's paper and pulp industry is essentially the only buyer of
Chile's wood chips. They are also the leading destroyer of native
forests globally.
An international effort is needed to help them switch to
alternative sources for their paper products, such as increasing the
use of waste paper, eucalyptus plantations, or kenaf. We would like
to ask for your help with our campaign in Chile to start moving them
in this direction. We are currently discussing with Japanese
environmentalists the formation of a public education project for both
Chile and Japan. In a few weeks we will send out an action alert to
generate letters to Chile's government. We are calling for forest
policies that end wood chips as the primary product, and that instead
support sustainable management and incentives for value-added
products.
2) Southern Hemisphere Gondwana Forest Sanctuary
We have begun working with the Rainforest Information Centre
of Australia, Project Lemu of Argentina, Native Forest Action of New
Zealand, and the Native Forest Network of the United States, on a
unique effort in international conservation.
We are proposing that by inter-governmental treaty, the
temperate rainforests 40 degrees south in Tasmania, New Zealand, Chile
and Argentina be protected through a "Southern Hemisphere Gonwana
Forests Reserve System." Gondwana comes from the name of the ancient
supercontinent that originally joined these forested territories
during the Eocene era millions of years ago. Even today the forests
of these territories are very similar.
The proposed Gondwana Reserve would preserve all the primary
forests and permit only sustainable uses of secondary forests. It
would join the international whale sanctuary set up in this same
region by inter-governmental treaty some years ago. It would be
similar in its practical application to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
System.
At the moment we need endorsement of this proposal from you
and your organization or institution. We will also need your help
with publicity and with generating letters of support. Look for more
details on that later.
We would like to stay in touch with you, preferably through
the cost-effective and efficient email, and periodically send you
alerts and updates about our work to save Chile's native forests. We
also want to invite your collaboration in our international projects
and perhaps in any ideas that you may suggest for us.
Attached is an information request sheet, and a brief fact
sheet about Chile's native forest crisis. We appreciate your help.
For the Forests,
Adriana Hoffmann
National Coordinator
Defensores del Bosque Chileno
---------------------------------------------
DBCh International Network Info-Request Sheet
If you agree with our goals, please give us the following information
so we can keep you involved in our international campaign.
Name or contact person
Organization
Address
Phone, fax and email
Can we list your organization as a supporter of Defensores del Bosque
Chileno? Of the Southern Hemisphere Gondwana Forests Sanctuary
proposal?
Any suggestions on sources of funds?
----------------------------------------------
CHILE'S NATIVE FOREST CRISIS FACTS
* A report from the Central Bank of Chile states that all native
forests will be gone in 20 years with current conditions of
exploitation
* This same report estimates that 120 thousand hectares are destroyed
each year, of which 60 to 90 thousand hectares are replaced with tree
plantations
* Chile has one of the world's last two extensive temperate
rainforests
* Chile's alerce tree is the world's second-oldest living species,
ranging from 3 to 4 thousand years old
* 90 percent of the species in native forests are endemic to Chile
* Chile's National Wildlands System protects only 1.4 million hectares
of native forest, the rest, estimated at 6.3 million hectares, is
entirely on private land
* 88.2 percent of Chile's exports are based on the production of four
natural resources - mining, forestry, fishing and agriculture
* Forest products are Chile's third-largest export and have grown at a
rate of 22 percent a year in the last decade
* Tree plantations now supply more than 90 percent of all wood
exported, yet only less than one-third of their potential capacity is
being used
* Currently there are two million hectares of exotic-species tree
plantations, this is projected to double in size in 20 years
* The native forest sector is only .056 percent of Chile's Gross
Domestic Product, while the forestry sector is just 3 percent
* The forestry sector is just 2.05 percent of national employment,
while the native forest sector is 0.1 percent
* The average rate of profit after costs over the last ten years by
the forestry sector is 58.02 percent
* Japan is responsible for 70 percent of the global demand for wood
chips and buys almost all of the wood chips exported from Chile
* Chile is the only country in the world that produces wood chips as
the primary product of its native forests, and is the world's third-
largest producer of wood chips after Canada and the United States
* Wood chips are 17 percent of Chile's forest exports, almost all from
native forests, the leading cause of native forest destruction in
Chile
ITEM #2
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 17:55:47 -0700
X-Sender: bosquech@entelchile.net
To: grbarry@students.wisc.edu
From: Defensores del Bosque Chileno
Subject: Chile's native forest report
"GOING, GOING, GONE: CHILE's NATIVE FOREST CRISIS:
AN URGENT GLOBAL CALL FOR ACTION FROM DEFENSORES DEL BOSQUE CHILENO"
By Jimmy Langman, May 1996
In the new global economy, Chile is a model for Latin America and a
new "tiger" of world trade. However, Chile's native forests are being
unnecessarily decimated in a rush for short-term economic gain.
In late 1995, the Central Bank of Chile released a report which
shows the pace of destruction of native forests doubled from 1984 to
1994, with nearly 700,000 hectares destroyed over the period. This is
more than 11 percent of Chile's official estimate that 6.3 million
hectares of "commercially-productive" native forest remain in a
country with a total land area of 75.7 million hectares. The report
projects that with the current methods and rate of deforestation, the
optimistic scenario is Chile's unprotected native forests will be
almost entirely degraded in twenty years, and the pessimistic, they
will be gone.
Losing a Global Treasure
To understand the global value of Chile's native forests one
needs only to look at a globe. While the proportion of temperate
forests increases with latitude in the northern hemisphere, the
reverse occurs in the southern hemisphere because of less land mass.
Hence only five percent of the world's temperate forests are in the
south, found in Chile and adjacent areas of Argentina, New Zealand and
Tasmania. Each of these is a biogeographical island; Chile's native
forests isolated from other forested areas by the Atacama desert in
the north and the Andes mountains which run the length of the country.
This isolation is reflected in the numerous species of life that
evolved for millions of years only in these areas of the world. An
estimated 90 percent of the species in Chile's forests are endemic.
Temperate rainforests are even more rare, originally covering
just 0.2 percent of the Earth's land area. Chile's Valdivian, North
Patagonia, and Magellanic rainforests begin north of the Bio Bio river
and extend nearly 800 miles to the southern tip of the continent. Vast
tracts of pristine forest remain in what is one of the world's last
two extensive temperate rainforests. Scientists say Chile's temperate
rainforests are richer in plant species than its counterparts in North
America and have one of the world's largest concentrations of biomass.
The diverse native flora provides habitat for numerous species of
indigenous birds and 35 native species of mammals, from puma and other
wildcats to endangered deer such as the huemul and South America's
smallest deer, the pudu.
Much of Chile's temperate forests qualify as "cathedral forest."
These ancient forests include trees hundreds even thousands of years
old. Chile's alerce tree (Fitzroya cupressoides), for example, ranges
from three to four thousand years old and is the second-oldest living
species on Earth (only California's bristlecone pine is older). The
alerce is a giant, comparable to the redwoods and sequoias of the
western United States. Unfortunately, it has been overcut and is now
found only in mountain valleys at elevations of up to four thousand
feet or inaccessible lowland stretches. Despite listing by the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and
protection as a national monument, illegal logging of the alerce
occurs as Chile's forest service (CONAF) lacks adequate enforcement
capability.
Another national monument and also illegally logged, araucaria
trees (Araucaria araucaria) live up to 1500 years and are found in
national parks near the coast and high in the Andes. Chile's
rainforests also include many beautiful hardwood species, such as the
immense coigue and roble (Nothofagus), ulmo (Eucryphlia), laurel
(Laurelia) and others.
A Forest Export Boom
In 1974, General Pinochet's government privatized the entire
forest industry. They gave back to original owners much of the
millions of hectares of forests expropriated under agrarian reform,
and sold off at below-cost prices all the rest, along with almost all
publicly-owned forest lands and processing facilities. In addition,
they introduced a series of tax credits encouraging exports of forest
products, and through Decree 701, offered a reimbursement for up to 75
percent of the costs of tree plantations.
The new forest policies created an environment for getting
rich quick. A new group of large timber conglomerates was created.
They found a global market with a high demand for low cost, raw
materials such as logs, pulp and wood chips. Forest exports rose
rapidly: growing at a rate of 22 percent a year in the last decade and
now Chile's third largest export industry. The total value of all
forest exports went from a then record high US$1.5 billion in 1994 to
US$2.2 billion in 1995. This is five years ahead of CONAF's 1994
projection that exports would exceed US$1.8 billion by the year 2000
and almost US$3 billion by the year 2010.
Because Chile's domestic market is small, Chile must gear its
products toward the global market to raise more wealth at home. The
global market needs raw wood. However, the engine of economic growth
has no limits unless they are imposed by society or a degraded natural
resource base. Tree plantations supply more than 90 percent of Chile's
wood products, but the big money made in wood chips and tree
plantations also creates an incentive to cut in the remaining native
forests. In the words of CORMA (Chile's Forest Products Association)
President Eladio Susaeta, "It is silly to leave all of them there
without them doing a damn thing. They are not all contributing to
biodiversity, some are not contributing to anything."
Native Wood Chips
Each year, according to the Central Bank report, 120 thousand
hectares of native forests are destroyed. Forest fires occasionally
exact a toll. Native forests are cleared and burned for agriculture
and grazing, but this is headed for a sharp decrease as most native
forests left are on unsuitable terrain. It is estimated that seven
million cubic meters of wood are extracted each year for firewood, but
this only thins the native forests, not destroy them.
Currently, two million hectares of tree plantations cut a
swath down the middle of central and south-central Chile. These
plantations of almost entirely fast growing, exotic species such as
monterrey pine and eucalyptus supply virtually all the timber for
Chile's forest industry. And they are using less than one-third of the
potential production capacity from tree plantations, while CORMA
projects that in twenty years the land area of tree plantations will
double. There is not a shortage of wood.
Here is the crux of Chile's native forest crisis: "Fly-by-night"
operations are hired to cut in the native forests by mostly small or
medium landowners. Then the logs are taken directly to wood chip mills
with little or no control from CONAF. With the fast money in hand
from the wood chip suppliers, the native forest owners then ask the
government to subsidize tree plantations in their now "degraded"
forest. Chilean forest law allows clearcutting only in degraded
forests. Or through a legal loophole they request a permit to
clearcut for cattle raising or agriculture, and afterwards request a
modification of the permit for a tree plantation.
A 1995 UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on forest
products says the international demand for wood chips has doubled in
the last ten years. Seventy percent of this global demand and
essentially all of the demand for Chile's chips comes from Japan's
paper industry; they want the short fibre from Chile's native
hardwoods to make high quality paper. More than 70 percent of native
forests cut goes to wood chips. Chile is the world's third largest
producer of wood chips: from 76 thousand cubic meters in 1986 to 2.5
million cubic meters in 1995.
Each year 60 to 90 thousand hectares of native forest are
converted to plantations; the profitable sale of hardwoods for wood
chipping is the main catalyst. The drive for more profit though also
compels the large timber companies to continue to expand their
capacity. Small landowners are coming under more and more pressure to
sell to Big Timber and the resulting substitutions with plantations
has caused the displacement of entire communities. Foreign investment
is sky-rocketing in Chile. One United States timber executive
comments, "It's like Saudi Arabia when the oil started flowing over
there, you couldn't even get a hotel room for all the American
businessmen."
The Trillium company of the United States has been planning,
despite objections of many Chilean environmental groups and
scientists, to selectively cut the rare lenga tree. Trillium's Rio
Condor Project, covers 370,000 hectares of pristine temperate
rainforest in both Chilean and Argentinean Tierra del Fuego. While
Trillium has adopted sustainable forestry principles, there are
serious doubts from some ecologists about the ability of the lenga to
regenerate in this fragile ecosystem. And there is concern that
Trillium may sell ownership of the project and thus relieve themselves
of their voluntary environmental commitments.
Chile's native forests are an attractive investment, the
forests can be bought cheap, they provide high quality wood and then
fertile soil for conversion to tree plantations. However, this
conversion can decrease dramatically. There are more than three
million hectares of deforested land available in southern Chile for
planting. Timber companies could choose these areas because their
primary concern is location and access to port facilities. The native
forest owners with the "unproductive land" and those involved in wood
chipping are a different story. They must be put in a new direction
with some help.
S.O.F. - Save Our Forests
The real worth of the native forests is obscured by government
forest policies which encourage cutting for the industry bottom line:
the weight of the wood. Before Chile loses for all time its native
forest heritage, it ought to turn around and examine the value of
healthy native forests to its economy and society. Defensores del
Bosque Chileno's "S.O.F." campaign urges a temporary freeze on logging
in Chile's native forests until the following five steps are taken.
1) Complete Inventory of Native Forests. Only with a complete
inventory of native forests can a substantive and sensible discussion
on the future of Chile's native forests be possible. We don't have
reliable information on what and how much is left of Chile's native
forests. The data that does exist are based on inventories taken in
the 1960s or from commercial production figures heavily biased in
favor of expanding logging activities. CONAF and the University of
Austral of Valdivia are currently doing a World Bank-funded vegetation
survey, but this will not give detailed information on species or
logging in native forests.
2) Natural Resource Policy for Chile. Chile needs a natural
resource policy firmly linked to ecological conservation and
restoration. According to 1994 government statistics, 88.2 percent of
Chile's exports are based on the production of four natural resources
- minerals, forestry, agriculture and fisheries. The emphasis on
boosting large-scale exports of raw natural resources is causing
unsustainable rates of depletion and severe ecological impacts. For
example, U.S. pesticide manufacturers continue to export chemicals
banned in the U.S. for use on Chilean crops, which poisons Chile and
then other countries through exports. A US Agency for International
Development study reports that a sustainable fish harvest for Chile
needs to be half of current levels. And another study says it will
take US$900 million to control the air pollution and water
contamination of current mining operations.
Chile's natural resources are exhausted by an economic system
with three main flaws: 1) natural resources are not included in the
current economic definition of "capital," 2) there is no account of
the impact of the depletion of natural resources on future stocks, and
3) the externalities of production, environmental and public health
impacts, are not reflected in the costs. The UN recommends that all
three aforementioned flaws need to be corrected in the economic
accounting of all nations. Chile needs to help lead the way.
3) Legislation and Protection of Native Forests. Chile's
Congress is debating a new native forest law right now, but after more
than three and a half years of discussion it has been severely
weakened by government economists and industry foresters. In its
present form it will actually weaken existing law. Decree 701
subsidies for tree plantations legally expired last year, but a new
15-year version of this law is successfully sailing through the
Congress. Current native forest legislation should be scrapped until a
native forest inventory has been completed, then with a knowledgeable
foundation should a national discussion be re-started.
The government needs to be given real instruments to regulate in
forests. A central stumbling block is that essentially all of the
native forests are on private land. Many Chilean politicians argue it
is unconstitutional to regulate activity on private property. While
it is not possible to regulate by administrative authority, the
constitution does indeed allow regulation by law. Any new legislation
will have to overcome the hurdle raised by private property rights
advocates.
A major aspect of a new native forest law needs to include the
authorization of funds for the preservation of native forests. It is
urgent that Chile identify extensive areas for preservation, including
all remaining primary forests and representation of all ecosystems.
One reliable CONAF source estimates that only 500,000 hectares of
primary or original growth native forest may remain. The National
System of Protected Wildlands (SNASPE), all national parks, reserves
and national monuments, has a goal of representing each ecosystem and
vegetation community found in Chile. But of the 83 ecosystems
identified, 35 percent are currently not included in the system.
Sustainable management of secondary growth native forests must be
implemented through a variety of incentives and programs, in addition
to effective regulatory enforcement. Legal certification standards
similar to existing private eco-labelling programs ought to be
required of all logging operations. Private landowners should receive
financial and technical assistance for sustainable management on par
with what is given for plantations. Subsidies and tax incentives
should be used to jumpstart the value-added wood products industry.
There is also a need for programs focused on restoring native forest
cover and rehabilitating degraded agricultural land. More than 33
million hectares of land are now affected by desertification and two-
thirds of all productive soils are eroded.
While extraction of firewood from native forest doesn't have
the same serious impacts as wood chipping, it does exert tremendous
pressure and deserves attention. Sixty percent of the industry and
public service sectors, primarily in southern Chile, use firewood for
energy. One-third of all Chilean households use firewood for heating
and cooking in both urban and rural areas. Chile has an abundant
supply of energy, they even sell excess energy to Argentina. Through
programs directed at encouraging and assisting the use of clean,
energy-efficient technologies, the government could help businesses
and people save both money and energy. And through a program aimed at
employing and training people in nearby communities to sustainably
manage forests, and by utilizing tree plantations to supply firewood,
the use of dendro energy from native forests would drop dramatically.
Finally, a new forest law needs to reflect Chile's commitments to
international treaties such as CITES, the Montreal Process: Criteria
and Indicators for Sustainable Use of Temperate Rainforests, and the
Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the
Western Hemisphere. And the UNCED agreements, Agenda 21 and the
Convention on Biodiversity, which were ratified and then largely
ignored.
4) New Institutions. CONAF's budget is 35 million dollars. In
relation to the growth of Chile's forest industry, their budget has
declined drastically since the 1960s, when it represented slightly
less than half of total forest export earnings: today it is only 1.5
percent of exports. Without adequate resources to enforce forest laws,
compounded by lack of political will for enforcement, they are a
crippled institution. Fines levied for violations are almost always
reduced to low levels in regional courts, and according to a CODEFF
study from a few years ago, only seven percent of all fines are paid.
Finally, when it comes down to a choice, CONAF sides typically with
industry. For example, in national reserves meant for experimentation
and research, eucalyptus and other exotic trees have been planted in
many areas.
Defensores del Bosque Chileno believes all conservation functions
and the stewardship of the national wildlands should be removed from
CONAF and become an independent department under the Ministry of
Public Lands. CONAF's responsibilities should be restricted to the
technical and economic aspects of forestry in plantations and
implementing sustainable forest policy in secondary growth forests.
5) Research on Native Forests Silviculture. Sustainable
forestry practices are needed in secondary growth forests aimed to
supply wood for value-added products. However, native forests
silviculture needs further research before it is applied in Chile.
The Bottom Line: Native Forests More Valuable Than Wood Chips
When the Central Bank released their report on native forests in
1995, the government moved quickly to silence discussion: canceling a
government-sponsored conference on native forests, joining the timber
industry in discrediting the report, and firing the head of the study
from his job at the Central Bank. Their disregard of the report's
findings was further punctuated by the launch of a new and worse draft
native forest law in Chile's Congress.
The current exploitation of native forests has no importance
to Chile's economy. Check the following numbers from the Central Bank
of Chile.
* more than 13 percent of total exports originate in the forestry
sector, 17 percent of this from native forests
* yet the native forest sector is only .056 percent of Gross Domestic
Product, while the forestry sector just 3 percent
* the native forest sector accounts for .1 percent of national
employment, the forestry sector 2.05 percent
* more than 70 percent of native forests cut goes to wood chips
* the average profit after costs over the last ten years by the
forestry sector is 58.02 percent
The value of native forests to the economy is clearly
overestimated. And the profits of industrial forestry are not
trickling down to the benefit of the whole country, and the jobs that
do exist are low in pay, benefits and security. The economic benefits
of native forest protection can compete favorably with the limited
benefits from more substitution of native forests with plantations and
the grinding out of more native wood chips.
The preservation of wild forests would help boost tourism, the
world's largest and fastest growing industry. Chile's tourism depends
to a large extent on its natural landscape, and tourism has increased
in Chile by a factor of five in the last ten years. According to
Chile's national tourism office, in 1993 foreign tourists spent US$824
million of which US$380 million was spent in the regions of the south
with forests. By comparison, in 1995, US$136.3 million was made in the
export of wood chips from these same forests.
However, of Chile's 1.4 million hectares of forests in its
National Wildlands System, more than 85 percent are inaccessible
regions of Chilean Patagonia. Southern Chile's Lake District, the most
popular region for tourism, and the region holding the richest
diversity of species and ecosystems of Chile's forests, is the region
most vulnerable to logging and is poorly protected. While tourism does
bring a whole set of potential problems that must be addressed, it is
a powerful tool for saving the Earth's last great wild places. With
Chile fast joining countries like Nepal as a major global destination
for outdoor adventures and ecotourism, there is tremendous economic
potential.
Chile should purchase the private lands necessary to complete
the National Wildlands System. In relation to past subsidies of
plantations or to Chile's overall GNP, alloting funds for forest
preservation is reasonable and the benefits will undoubtedly more than
pay back the investment. Financial resources for forest preservation
could be re-directed from existing government sources or from taxes on
the use of natural resources. International financing needs to be
pursued, such as the U.S. Initiative On Joint Implementation, which
brings together the public and private sectors to assist environment
projects abroad.
To complement any government assistance that may be forthcoming,
it is necessary to continue the efforts of individuals and
organizations to buy native forests to counter the massive investment
of the timber industry. There have been notable successes already,
such as Chilean Foundation Lahuen and Ancient Forest International,
which bought more than 1200 acres of araucaria forest to form the
"Cani Sanctuary" near Pucon, Chile. And environmentalist Douglas
Tompkins has bought more than 700,000 acres of primary temperate
rainforest in the southern province of Palena, called "Pumalin," the
world's largest private park. Defensores del Bosque is helping raise
$3 million to buy "Alto-Huemul" - 3,000 hectares of old-growth
"roble" forest on a 35,000 hectare property in central Chile
surrounded by grand mountains and noble rivers.
Chile is the only country in the world which makes wood chips its
primary product from native forests - the lowest-value wood product
possible from their highest quality wood. Instead Chile should use
scrap wood, branches or tree stumps for any domestic need for wood
chips, ban all exports of wood chips, and make only value-added wood
products from native forests. This would provide an alternative
economic product for private forest owners, and long-term jobs and
greater revenue for local communities. To give value-added wood
products a boost, international markets need to be found for the
manufacture of products such as furniture, boards, or the construction
of pre-fabricated houses, and foreign expertise to develop specialized
products that are competitive in the global market.
Finally, what is the cost of environmental restoration? No cost
can be assigned to restoring a cathedral forest, they are priceless
and irreplaceable. The application of ecological restoration when we
do try, and we must, is proving much harder and more costlier than
taking care of the forests from the start. However, there are many
jobs in restoration. Timber workers could find new jobs restoring
forests, instead of destroying them. Young and old people and the
armed forces, perhaps through a Chilean Conservation Corps, could also
contribute to restoration and be trained to sustainably manage
secondary growth forests. Thousands of kilometers of rivers and other
water sources need to be restored and hundreds of kilometers of
logging roads need to be returned to their natural state.
Economic studies and demonstration projects showing the
potential alternative products and employment from native forests are
needed to light a fire under Chile's politicians. More tree
plantations in place of native forests will surely produce a
corresponding drop in tourism and the quality of life, and more
deterioration of the natural environment.
International Action Needed
A world convention on forests needs attention on the global
political agenda, but such an effort needs to be safeguarded from the
influence that the global timber lobby will surely try to exert.
Further, temperate rainforests should be given the same resources and
protection efforts accorded the world's tropical rainforests.
An international sanctuary for whales south of parallel 40
degrees was a pie-in-the-sky dream to some when it was first proposed
by a few activists in the early 1960s, today it exists by governmental
treaty. Defensores del Bosque joins Argentina's Project Lemu in
proposing an "International Sanctuary for Temperate Rainforests 40
Degrees South."
In the United States, many politicians and citizen
organizations are fighting a proposed North American Free Trade
Agreement with Chile until it includes strong, enforceable labor and
environmental agreements as part of the core agreement, instead of on
the side. The rapid mining of Chile's natural resources could lead to
disastrous effects in the future to economies that are married to
Chile. Efforts to block NAFTA membership may provide the impetus for
a natural resource policy in Chile, and a more visionary economic
policy that seeks to diversify the products from its native forest
resources.
Japan's paper and pulp industries are the world's largest
destroyer of native forests. International cooperation, perhaps an
international boycott, is needed to persuade them to stop using wood
chips from native forests and instead switch to alternative sources,
such as the increased use of waste paper, eucalyptus plantations, or
alternative fibres such as kenaf, which can be used on a large-scale
and grows faster than wood plantations.
Defensores del Bosque Chileno in concert with the Alliance for
Native Forests, a Chilean coalition of groups, is building popular
awareness of the value of Chile's forests. International collaboration
with non-governmental and governmental organizations is one of their
biggest needs. And an international show of support for Defensores del
Bosque's proposals for the protection of Chile's native forests is
essential to their overall success. Considering the rapid expansion of
Chile's forest industry projected for the rest of the decade, there is
not a lot of time. We ask for your help on behalf of Chile's unique
and beautiful natural patrimony.