Help Defensores del Bosque Chileno Save Chile's Native Forests
5/19/97
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Headline: Help Defensores del Bosque Chileno Save Chile's Native Forests
Source: Defensores del Bosque Chileno
Date: 5/19/97
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 19, 1997
Dear Friend,
We would like to introduce ourselves and ask for your participation.
Defensores del Bosque Chileno (Defenders of the Chilean Forests,
DBCh) is a non-governmental organization working to preserve Chiles
remaining primary old-growth forests, and to catalyze national forest
policies that conserve and restore our secondary forests.
Chiles native forests are one of the worlds natural treasures.
They include one of the worlds last two extensive temperate rainforests.
Because Chile is a biogeographical island, more than 90 percent of animal
and plant life in Chiles forests are endemic. Chiles forests also contain
the highest species diversity among the world=B4s 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
ce 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
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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 Bsoque
Chileno?
Of the Southern Hemisphere Gondwana Forests Sanctuary proposal?
Any suggestions on sources of funds?
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CHILE'S NATIVE FOREST CRISIS FACTS
* No accurate data exist on what and how much is left of native forests as
a complete inventory has never been completed
* 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 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 alerce tree is the world=B4s 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 tow 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 biggest cause of native forest destruction in Chile.