ACTION ALERT

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

World's Largest Timber Mill for Chile

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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1/29/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

If you do ONE ACTION ALERT a year, this should be the one. Chile's

temperate forests are to be decimated by a grotesquely huge wood

chipping and strand board facility, courtesy of Boise Cascade (BC) of

the United States. BC has shut down Pacific Northwest mills and is

moving on to the Patagonia. Southern Chile holds more than one-third

of worldwide remaining temperate rainforests.

"Scientists estimate that 90 percent of species found in Chile's

native forests are endemic. The rare "siempreverde" coastal temperate

rainforest found in the region threatened by the Boise Cascade mill

has the highest levels of biodiversity of all of Chile's forests."

For the project to go forward Boise Cascade still must obtain full

bank financing, and Boise Cascade's board of directors must also vote

its approval of the project at their meeting this Spring. "Thousands

of influential letters can turn them around!"

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: CHILE'S TEMPERATE RAINFORESTS THREATENED

BOISE CASCADE PLANS WORLD'S LARGEST TIMBER MILL FOR CHILE

Source: Chileans for a Sustainable and Equitable Society

Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source

Date: January 29, 1999

After helping tear up the temperate rainforests of the Pacific

Northwest, Boise Cascade is now abandoning its mills and jobs in the

United States and looking to the southern hemisphere. In Chile, they

have plans to invest US$180 million in a wood chipping and oriented

strand board facility that would be the largest of its kind in the

world. Company officials state that their next stop is the Amazon

rainforests of Brazil.

The Boise Cascade project in Chile, dubbed "Cascada Chile," is so huge

that it would double the rate of deforestation in Chile's temperate

rainforests. Meanwhile, Chile's forests are already disappearing fast

even without Cascada Chile. A Central Bank of Chile study states that

with current methods of exploitation, all of Chile's native forests

not set aside for protection will be completely degraded and

deforested within 25 years.

In terms of global biodiversity, Chile's temperate rainforests are

very important. Temperate rainforests originally only ever covered

just 0.2 percent of the Earth's land area and today more than half are

destroyed. Southern Chile holds more than one-third of those remaining

temperate rainforests.

Scientists estimate that 90 percent of species found in Chile's native

forests are endemic. The rare "siempreverde" coastal temperate

rainforest found in the region threatened by the Boise Cascade mill

has the highest levels of biodiversity of all of Chile's forests.

Boise Cascade's plans for Chile come on the heels of their recent

episode in Mexico. Last year, they were finally chased out of

Mexico's Costa Grande forests by local farmers protesting the effects

of deforestation on their communities. Timber suppliers rebelled as a

result of the protests and simply stopped supplying wood to the

company.

Boise Cascade seemingly stops at nothing to get raw wood for its mills

and the company perceives Chile as just another large source of cheap

timber. In Mexico, Boise Cascade started its timber buying operations

just months after Mexican police tragically killed 17 farmers and

permanently maimed 23 others at an anti-logging protest.

But the people who live in southern Chile see their forests as more

than just another source of wood.

Chile's tourism associations - national, regional, and local - all

oppose the project because it will cause a decline in ecotourism. The

Boise Cascade mill is set to be located near Puerto Montt, Chile,

which is in the middle of Chile's Lake District and northern

Patagonia. An international hot spot for eco-travel, one recent

economic study estimates that revenue from tourism is seven times more

important to the region than wood chipping operations.

Salmon companies are opposed as uncontrolled deforestation will damage

the lakes, rivers, and streams of watersheds. One salmon company is

located just 20 meters from the proposed port of the Cascada Chile

mill and it states that emissions from the timber mill would

contaminate their salmon farm.

Furthermore, it has been discovered that the proposed mill site for

Cascada Chile lies above ancient artifacts that could prove to be

among the oldest in the western hemisphere. Archeologists and Chile's

National Monuments Council are filing lawsuits to protect these

ancient remains.

The Mayor of Puerto Montt, countless local citizens, scientists,

environmental groups, and others from across the nation of Chile are

solidly opposed.

Another big reason for the firm opposition to Cascada Chile is that

Chile's forest service has few resources to control logging in the

region. And current Chilean forestry laws are weak anyway. For

example, clearcutting is permitted in many cases, often in order to

make way for tree plantations of exotic species like eucalyptus and

Monterrey pine. A recent study by Chile's University of

Austral at Valdivia estimated that less than one-fifth of logging in

Chile's forests are even done with management plans!

But Boise Cascade insists, again over all the protests and the hard

facts about Chile's forest situation, and has spent thousands of

dollars on a public relations campaign run by Burson-Marstellar (the

same p.r. firm famous for cleaning up Exxon's image after the Valdez

oil spill) in order to ram the project through.

Unfortunately, money and political connections is winning. Boise

Cascade, the majority owner of the "Cascada Chile," which is a joint

venture with a local wood chipping menace called Maderas Condor, has

recently received approval of its Environmental Impact Assessment

(EIA) from Chile's Regional Environmental Commission (COREMA). The

Cascada Chile EIA covers only the mill site and does not address the

impacts of the project to the forest resource.

The broad and large coalition of Chileans opposed to the project has

vowed to fight Cascada Chile in the courts, and however else possible,

but they need your help! Pressure here in the United States on Boise

Cascade could save Chile's temperate rainforests from disaster.

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PLEASE SEND LETTERS TODAY!!!!

Here's what you should say, but in your own words.

Tell these captains of industry that Boise Cascade is making a large

and expensive mistake. The opposition to the project is widespread

and diverse, from Chile's tourism industry to Chile's salmon industry

to the Mayor of Puerto Montt to environmental groups from around the

world.

Chile's temperate rainforests are priceless, too valuable to be

squandered away as wood chips and fiber board. The world's largest

chip and board mill is not appropriate in Chile, its offensive.

Chileans will fight it tooth and nail, and so will international

environmental groups. In that kind of environment, Boise Cascade will

have a very difficult time guaranteeing a sufficient supply of timber

for their Cascada Chile mill. Its a risky venture for them, and it

will just get riskier.

In addition, specifically tell Mr. Harad and his board partner, Mr.

Robert Jaedicke, to instead reinvest in their projects at home by

emphasizing responsible management of their lands. And urge Mr.

Marshall Carter and Mr. John Gunn to use their financial stockholder

might as leverage to put pressure on Boise Cascade to pull out of this

shaky and irresponsible investment.

There is a window of opportunity right now for us to help Boise

Cascade reverse course. The company still must obtain full bank

financing for the Cascada Chile project in order for it to go forward,

and Boise Cascade's board of directors must also vote its approval of

the project at their meeting this Spring. Thousands of influential

letters can turn them around!

Mr. George Harad

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Boise Cascade Corporation

224 E. Braemere Rd.

Boise, Idaho 83702-1710

Mr. Marshall N. Carter, CEO

State Street Bank & Trust

225 Franklin St.

Boston, MA 02110

Mr. Robert K. Jaedicke

Stanford University

Graduate School of Business

Stanford, CA 94305

Mr. John Gunn, President

Dodge & Cox

1 Sansome Street

San Francisco, CA 94104-4436

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