***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Chilean
Native Forests Dwindle
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
4/22/96
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
cool beech forests of Tierra del Fuego, Chile, are owned by a
U.S.
company, Trillium Corp, who plans to harvest these ancient
beech
trees. Native forests have been heavily
harvested in Chile,
and
given such a high rate of past industrial forestry,
environmentalists
are skeptical of promises for sustainable
management.
Reuters reports that 80 percent of Chile's 17.5
million
acres of native forests are in private hands, and that
this
timber deal will set an important precedent.
Discussion is
made of
the movement to "green-label" wood products. It is my
opinion
that "green" timber involves not only less harvest per
unit
area; but smaller scale, locally owned forestry operations
rather
then continued large scale foreign owned companies.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Chilean
native forests dwindle as debate rages
4/17/96
Copyright
1996 by Reuters
PORVENIR,
Chile (Reuter) - Centuries old and thriving in one of
the
most remote spots on earth, the cool beech forests of Tierra
del
Fuego's southern slopes have been barely touched by time --
until
now.
Padlocked
gates, wire fences and a newly built wide dirt track
leading
into the trees are signs that changes are taking place in
these
vast, far-flung woodlands.
The
forests are owned by the U.S. company Trillium Corp., whose
plans
to exploit the ancient beech trees have become the latest
battleground
between the lumber industry and ecologists over
Chile's
dwindling native forests.
What
makes this controversy different from Chile's many
environmental
horror stories is that Trillium insists its
project
is different -- that it will cull mature trees, not
clear-cut
them, and that its plan will "improve" the forest in
a model
of sustainable development.
Chile's
growing environmental movement is skeptical.
"I
look with great alarm at the growth of forestry activity
in this
country," said Manuel Baquedano, director of the
Political
Ecology Institute in Santiago.
"Native
forests have been practically exhausted in central
Chile
from a commercial point of view. The frontier of
exploitation
has now moved much further south."
Baquedano
fears that exploitation of Tierra del Fuego's
woodlands
could one day leave the area like central Chile, where
decades
of logging and burning have reduced once vast stands of
larch
and redwood to isolated pockets.
With 80
percent of Chile's 17.5 million acres of native forests in
private
hands, much will depend on the actions of companies like
Trillium.
Trillium,
based in Bellingham, Wash., plans to start this year
logging
and managing the some 740,000 acres of forest it owns on
Tierra
del Fuego, an island shared between Chile and Argentina.
The
woods are made up mainly of two species of beech known as
lenga
and coigue.
Unlike
most Chilean forestry projects, which involve wholesale
cutting
and burning without replanting, the lenga scheme will be
sustainable,
Trillium officials said.
"The
forest is highly regenerative and so when you open it up and
light
comes in, smaller trees will grow," said Ron Packard,
general
manager of Trillium's Chilean division. "It's a
sustainable
model based on conservative growth assumptions."
Lenga,
which can live more than 500 years, is valued for its deep
pink
wood, which closely resembles timber from the valuable North
American
cherry tree.
Ecologists
say more research needs to be done into the forest's
fragile
ecosystem before any management can begin.
"No
one knows how the ecosystem works. The real problem is no one
worries
about this before they start cutting. It's like running in
the
dark," said Bedrich Magas, a professor of electrical
engineering
at Magallanes University and local environmentalist in
Punta
Arenas, the regional capital.
Trillium,
which has invested $15 million studying lenga and has
hired
teams of scientists to help prepare the project, hopes its
care in
setting it up will pay -- literally.
Eager
to take advantage of the growing fashionability and higher
prices
for "green-label" wood products, the company will apply for
certification
that the lenga has been logged under tough
environmental
standards, officials said.
But a
report commissioned by the government last year from
France's
state forestry agency to have lenga exports certified
as
coming from well-run woodlands slammed Chilean forestry
management
techniques and was scathing about Trillium.
"Chilean
foresters are short-sighted," said the report. "Their
attitude
is equivalent to treating a forest like a mine, which is
abandoned
when the vein is exhausted."
Trillium
was carrying out "a huge industrial investment without
worrying
whether the forest can support it in a sustainable way,"
the study
said. But company executives said the report was based
on
inaccurate information.
A study
last year from Chile's Central Bank said that if current
destruction
continues there could be virtually no mature native
forest
left in Chile within 30 years, apart from that protected in
national
parks. Most seriously affected has been the central Sixth
Region
where between 40 and 60 percent of native forest has been
cleared
since 1984, it said.
Felling
has soared in the last 10 years as firms clear woods for
replanting
with fast-growing pine and eucalyptus, both imported
species.
Native lumber is made into wood chips with most exports
going
to Japan's voracious paper industry.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
This
document is a PHOTOCOPY and all recipients should seek
permission
from the source for reprinting. You are
encouraged to
utilize
this information for personal campaign use; including
writing
letters, organizing campaigns and forwarding.
All efforts
are
made to provide accurate, timely pieces; though ultimate
responsibility
for verifying all information rests with the
reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation
Archives at URL=
http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html
Networked
by:
Ecological
Enterprises
Email
(best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org
Phone->(608)
233-2194 || Fax->(608) 231-2312