Conversion of Chile's native forest lands for plantations and cattle raising. Clearcutting in distance by Mininco Company, a Chilean forest company, 1995. Photo: Hernan Verscheure.
Chile's Native Forests - Destroying a Heritage
Prior to the European colonization and subsequent industrialization of Chile, about 60 percent of Chile was covered in native forests. Native forests are ecosystems of indigenous flora and fauna that have evolved over time to coexist interdependently in their surrounding environment. It is estimated that Chile's native forests, ranging from semi-arid forests in the north to boreal and temperate rainforests in the south, contain as many as 123 different tree species, making Chile one of the most bio-diverse forested countries located in the temperate zone.
Centuries of landclearing for agriculture and cattle raising and tree-cutting for firewood and timber have destroyed and degraded most of the forest lands of the forest lands of Chile. Now these forces, still at work throughout the country, are outplaced by new ecosystem-destroying practices: large scale clearcutting for substitution of native forests by exotic tree plantations and "highgrading" of forests - selectively logging to remove the high value pulp chip trees and commercially valuable wood. Chile's native forests are being destroyed at the rate of approximately 190,000 ha per year. That's 32 soccer fields every hour!
Clearcutting and burning by Mininco Company for substitution of native forests to pine plantation, Coastal Mountain Range, Chile, 1995. Photo: Hernan Verscheure.
Clearcutting -Prime Agent of Deforestation
Clearcutting - the removal of all natural vegetation from a section of land - has long been the main means of converting native forests to agricultural and pasture lands. Although this still goes on, clearcutting is now more commonly used to destroy native forests to make way for exotic tree plantations, especially in southern Chile. Some timber companies are circumventing government restrictions on how much native forest land can be converted to plantations by requesting permit to allow pine or eucalyptus plantations. This recently happened to more than 10,000 ha of land on Chiloe Island in southern Chile.
The very process of clearcutting destroys the ecology of the native forest and reduces natural biodiversity. The associated use of fire and herbicide degrades soils, pollutes both surface and groundwater, and contaminates wildlife habitat. In almost all clearcut operations, poor road design leads to accelerate soil erosion and damage to streams, especially on steep sloped areas.
Eucalyptus plantation, Chile. Photo: CODEFF files.
Monterey Pine (Pinus Radiata) plantation (mid-ground), Chile. Photo: CODEFF files.
Plantations - Unsustainable Crops not Forests
In 1974, in an attempt to rehabilitate approximately 2 million hectares of poor-growing lands where native forests have been totally destroyed, the Chilean government passed a law (Decree Law #701) encouraging and funding forestation. A loophole allowed big businesses to take advantage of state funds for plantation projects that replaced native forests with exotic species, such as the fast-growing Monterey pine(Pinus Radiata) and species of eucalyptus. Industry pressure on government to allow even more plantations is rooted in the drive to supply wood chips for huge pulp mills, both in Chile and abroad. Chile's six huge pulp mills depend on the country's massive exotic pine plantations for their chips.
There are now 1.7 million ha of plantations growing non-native trees in Chile. Increasing at a rate of about 60,000 ha. per year for pine and 15,000 ha. for eucalyptus, the conversion to these kinds of plantations is now the greatest threat faced by Chile's native forests.
The sustainability of monoculture plantations is questionable. Spreading in contiguous blocks like a plague on the landscape, these plantations represent a complete loss in natural forest biodiversity, structure and function. Soil and water quality are degraded. Wildlife cannot adapt, especially since plantations are maintained with the use of toxic herbicides and pesticides. In addition, plantations displace small-scale, forest-dependent landowners, forcing their move from rural areas to the cities, with the concomitant loss of the local culture.
Highgrading of native Lenga forest for pulp wood chips, Andean Mountain Range, south Chile, 1996. Photo: Graham Lewis.
Highgrading - Hidden Devastation
Highgrading refers to selective cutting of the trees of higher value in the forest, often the trees of just one species and leaving the rest. It results in loss of forest cover, decreased forest productivity and severe modification of forest structure and processes. In some cases, highgrading has so severely degraded Chile's native forest that companies have been allowed to clearcut the remaining trees because "the forest is gone, anyways". In addition, the heavy machinery commonly used by the big companies in their highgrading operations damages remaining trees and vegetation, retards regeneration and causes soil compaction, erosion and stream damage.
Historically, highgrading was practiced on a small scale to procure firewood and timber. Now the use of this ecologically damaging forest practice is expanding within Chile's native forests to satisfy the demand for high quality chips of short-fibred tree species to supply Japan's pulp mills.
