Management of Chile's Native Forests: A Real Challenge!
Forest products stacked for export, including pile of Eucalyptus chips bound for Japanese pulp mill, Puerto Montt,south Chile, 1994. Photo: Adriane Carr.
Chile faces a unique challenge in terms of sustainably managing its native forests. Virtually all of Chile's commercially valuable forests are in private hands. This means that, although almost 1.4 million ha of native forest lands are protected, to increase protection to what's needed, government must purchase lands, which can be expensive.
Meanwhile, forest lands are being purchased by international forest companies like Mitsubishi of Japan that see Chile as a great source of woodfibre for the global market. Over 80 percent of Chile's forest products are exported.
Chile's forestry sector has experienced an explosive growth in the last twenty years. While in 1970 total forest product exports amounted to 47.1 million dollars, today they exceed the 1 billion dollar mark. Although there are many Chilean-based companies operating in the forest sector, investments by corporations from the main market countries in Asia, North America and Europe, are increasingly noticeable. A significant portion of the recent foreign investments are based on conversion of native forests to pine plantations - the preferable fibre for pulp chips.
The private status of forest lands has made government involvement in management difficult. Although several forest-related laws have been passed, the first in 1925, they have generally been measures to protect the "public good", such as prohibiting logging on steep slopes and next to streams in order to protect soils and water quality. In the 1970s some new forest laws were passed as "emergency measures" to protect endangered tree species including the Alerce and Araucaria, and to encourage rehabilitation of deforested lands. But there is still no general forest policy comprehensively regulating the forestry sector in Chile. And the laws that do exist are not really implemented or enforced.
It is time, now, for the Chilean government to truly protect "the public good" by developing, implementing and enforcing a new comprehensive forest policy that will, as its cornerstone, sustain Chile's native forests. Increasing global concern about the destruction of native forests, and a shift in market demand towards wood products that are guaranteed to come from ecologically sustainable sources, would make this government initiative a very smart one.
