***********************************************

FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

UPDATE: Chilean Indigenous Community Resists Highway Construction

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal

http://forests.org/links/ -- Forest Conservation Links

08/30/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

TAKE ACTION:

Temperate Rainforests in Chile Threatened by Coastal Highway

http://forests.org/emailaction/chile.htm

Chile's large and intact temperate rainforests are threatened by

construction of the Southern Coastal Highway that threatens to

destroy large areas of primary forest. The proposed highway will

cause massive deforestation both by its construction and by

accelerating the conversion of remaining rainforest into plantations

of exotic species. Following is an update on the situation,

highlighting the fact that the road is being constructed despite

widespread local resistance. Shockingly, there exists a suitable

alternative route that would not fragment this globally significant

ecosystem. Efforts to increase tourism would be well served by

maintaining the natural environment. If you have not sent a protest

email yet, please do so at http://forests.org/emailaction/chile.htm

g.b.

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: COASTAL HIGHWAY IN THE CORDILLERA DE LA COSTA, X REGION,

CHILE, A ZIGZAGGING HIGHWAY

http://www.elbosquechileno.cl/CCCC28.html

Source: Copyright 2001 Los Defensores del Bosque Chileno, From Voces

del Bosque, Winter 2001

Date: August 29, 2001

Byline: Mal£ Sierra

*The Ministry of Public Works tossed out the study of an alternative

route for the coastal highway.

*Even though the actual project would be more expensive, even though

it will destroy the last continuous coastal forest, even though it

will engender a new and more serious ethnic conflict.

*The Coalition for the Conservation of the Coastal Range (CCCC)

advocates for the creation of a sizable national park on the coast.

Wet and with little sleep, four "lonkos" of the Butahuillimapu, the

General Council of Caciques (chiefs) of the Huilliche people, arrived

at the Chilean National Congress. The Huilliche people inhabit the

Coastal Range of the 10th Region. These four lonkos never thought

that they would be there in the seat of legislative power, "accusing"

the executive branch of, once again, promising their people something

and then not fulfilling that promise. Joining a coalition of citizen

organizations working for the conservation of the coastal range,

Anselmo Paillamanque, Arturo Camiao, Ricardo Mellado, and Mart¡n

Paillamanque traveled overnight by bus in order to attend a meeting

with the Environment Commission of the lower house.

Maybe it wasn't the best moment, but they could not have foreseen it:

on that very same afternoon a special law for the Christian Democrats

party to change the date of the parliamentary elections was being

written and approved in just nine hours. The "honorables" of the

house appeared nervous, their minds focused on too many things at the

same time. But the Mapuche elders had a mission to complete, and

each of them spoke their piece.

After having knocked on an infinite number of doors, on April 5th

past the CCCC had succeeded in speaking with the Minister of Public

Works, Carlos Cruz, who had promised to study in the field the

alternative highway routes, taking into account the social, economic,

and environmental problems that the current road construction had

been causing. Two months later the General Director of Public Works,

Eduardo Arriagada, responded in a short note that the alternatives

were "not feasible" and that it had been decided to continue the

project as planned "in order to complement orders from the

president."

What happened in this short period can be attributed to the open

intervention of Senator Gabriel Vald‚s in favor of the official

project, and his request for the resignation of the National Director

of Roads, Pablo Anguita, who had publically recognized the danger

that the complex and costly project presented to the forest

ecosystem.

The 319 kilometers of coastal highway make up a project that was

initiated when current President Ricardo Lagos was Minister of Public

Works. It is a work of great dimensions that would unite the country

in its second highway from north to south. The proposed section

south of Valdivia will produce disastrous impacts in an ecosystem

that is unique, and that has been considered by the national and

international scientific community as a priority for the conservation

of biodiversity. The highway will be the deathblow for the most

ancient forest of Chile and its original inhabitants.

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT THEY PASS US WITH THEIR BULLDOZERS

Behind the insistence for building the highway for the western flank

of the coastal range are the interests of the forest products

industry--dedicated to the substitution of native forest for

plantations of exotic species--and it is this that the Huilliche

chiefs fiercely oppose. Their proposal is that the highway run for

the eastern side of the range, improving roads that already exist,

which would be less expensive in economic terms and more beneficial

in social terms as it would serve the communities in the area.

"The health of the Mapuche people is in the forest. The forestry

industry has already done a great deal of damage; they have cleared

and burned the best woods in order to plant pine and eucalipt. They

have disappeared the roble pell¡n, the lingue, the laurel, the

coigue, the olivillo. Now we don't hear the singing of the birds,

our waters are spoiled, and we are losing our soils. We do not want

more contamination," says Anselmo Paillamanque, lonko of Cuinco, who

is working in defense of the lands of eighteen organized communities.

"We have suffered the most terrible insults from private property

interests, and national and multi-national businesses; they have

repealed laws that were in our favor and the fraudulent purchases of

land have multiplied. The highway will be a great ecological damage

and it will kill us as a people, which we are not willing to accept.

We lonkos have always existed, since long before the conquistadors:

we have not just recently appeared and we are going to fight for our

rights."

With his poncho soaked by rain and the smell of wood fire smoke that

is characteristic of the people of the south, Mart¡n Paiilamanque,

lonko of Maicolpi, representative of ten communities in the coastal

sector of San Juan de la Costa and speaking in front of the

parliament, warned that:

"In the name of development this project is provoking the

deterioration and even the extermination of the communities. A

serious study has been done that establishes the will of these

communities in opposition to the construction of the coastal highway

through our territories. We are going to oppose this until the end,

and if the Chilean State insists, we know how we will stand. We want

development but with identity, and we are going to continue being in

opposition to a project that does not favor us. We are going to

fight to impede that our communities are divided into factions and

and that one more time they RUN US OVER WITH THEIR BULLDOZERS. It is

for this reason that we propose alternatives."

One of the propositions that the CCCC has planted is the creation of

a grand coastal national park in the tenth region, especially since

many of the species in the ecosystem are not represented in the

National System of Protected Wild Areas. The properties that could

make up this park include the 2850 hectare holding at the mouth of

the Rio Bueno which is in the hands of the government run National

Forestry Corporation (CONAF); Quitaluto, a 7000 hectare holding of

the military south of Coral which is contiguous with the small

Valdivia National Reserve; and the 11,000 hectares which belongs to

Bosques S.A., who are currently exploiting the holdings of Chaihuin

and Venecia, substituting the native forest for eucalipt plantations,

in a forest which could be annexed to expand the very small Alerce

Costero National Monument.

After the meeting, the parliamentary deputies agreed to summon the

Ministry of Public Works and the director of CONAF in order to insist

that they seriously investigate the best alternative routes,

developing social, technical, and economical criteria, and that, as

well, while the necessary studies are being done, that construction

on the road by the Military Works Corps be halted. It remains to be

seen if the institutions function and if citizen participation is

allowed to be anything more than casting a vote every once in a

while. The Huilliche Chiefs do not have much confidence that it will

be so.

Translation by ghughes@wildrockies.org

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior

interest in receiving forest conservation informational materials for

educational, personal and non-commercial use only. Recipients should

seek permission from the source to reprint this PHOTOCOPY. All

efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces, though ultimate

responsibility for verifying all information rests with the reader.

For additional forest conservation news & information please see the

Forest Conservation Portal at URL= http://forests.org/

Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org