ENVIRONMENT:
Chile Finally Has a
Native Forests Law
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, (IPS) -
Environmental groups in
Chile are pleased by the
approval of the Native
Forest Recovery and
Forestry Development
Act, which took 15 years
to make its way through
Congress. But they have
not forgotten the
unaddressed pending
issues.
"We are happy," Flavia
Liberona, coordinator of
the Native Forest
Network, which has
grouped more than 30
environmental and social
organisations since
2004, told IPS. "The
approval of this law is
a watershed, the end of
a stage. Now the
government will design
the regulations, with
the commitment to
continue working on
three other important
aspects."
These pending aspects
are the drafting of a
complementary bill on
the replacement of
native sclerophyllous
dry forest, which was
left out of the new law
because of the lack of
consensus on the issue,
the establishment of an
expanded system of
nature reserves, and
institutional reforms in
the forestry sector.
According to Liberona,
who is also the head of
the Terram Foundation,
another local
environmental
organisation, the
government promised to
present initiatives to
address these aspects
within 270 days after
the bill is signed into
law.
The Corporación Nacional
Forestal, the
government’s national
forestry agency, reports
that Chile has more than
15 million hectares of
forest, 13.4 million of
which are made up of
native species.
"The native forest law
was the most important
unfulfilled
environmental promise of
the governments of the
Concertación (the
centre-left coalition
that has governed Chile
since 1990)," said
Liberona.
"That’s why we want
President Michelle
Bachelet to sign it into
law in a symbolic
ceremony," she added.
The country’s
non-governmental
organisations "are
asking me to propose
that it be held in the
city of Valdivia," the
capital of the southern
region of Los Ríos,
which is rich in native
forests, she said.
The bill was introduced
to Congress in April
1992, under the
government of Patricio
Aylwin (1990-1994).
After 15 years of
fruitless negotiations,
Under Secretary of
Agriculture María
Cecilia Leiva created a
forestry panel made up
of representatives of
the executive and
legislative branches,
the business community
and environmental
organisations that
reached agreement on a
shortened version of the
forestry law.
The law left out the
touchiest issues, such
as the replacement of
dry forest in central
Chile with avocado and
orange plantations and
other non-native species
of trees.
On Tuesday, the Chamber
of Deputies unanimously
approved the report by
the mixed committee of
deputies and senators
set up to negotiate the
last remaining
differences. On
Wednesday, the bill was
passed unanimously by
the Senate, and it is
now awaiting Bachelet’s
signature.
One of the key aspects
of the law is the
creation of a fund aimed
at conservation of
native forests. Owners
of small forested areas
will be able to apply
and compete for the
funds, which will total
eight million dollars a
year, in order to
finance sustainable
logging or conservation
projects.
"This integrated vision
opens up possibilities
for using, managing and
protecting forests in
different ways," said
Liberona.
Under-Secretary Leiva
said the law could
generate 5,000 direct
and 33,000 indirect
jobs.
In addition, a
consultative council
will be established,
comprising all
stakeholders. Its tasks
will include reviewing
the new regulations,
commissioning studies
and determining
incentives and resources
for research.
The regulations, based
on scientific studies,
will address the logging
of native trees in the
proximity of waterways,
wetlands, hills,
mountains and glaciers.
Liberona also noted that
implementation of the
law will be assessed
every three years.
"We believe passage of
this law is an important
step, a contribution
towards the management,
recovery and
conservation of
forests," René Reyes,
with the Group of
Forestry Engineers for
the Native Forest, told
IPS.
"The law isn't perfect,
but that is very
difficult to achieve
when there are so many
actors with such diverse
interests involved,"
said the engineer, whose
group has closely
followed the progress
made by the bill as it
made its way through
Congress.
Reyes emphasised the
impact that the
legislation will have on
recuperating native
forests, which he said
"have been felled
indiscriminately for
centuries."
But he added that what
is still lacking in
Chile "is legislation on
the management of
plantation forestry" in
general terms, and with
respect to the effects
on small farmers and
indigenous communities
in particular.
The country’s forestry
sector has grown from
300,000 hectares in 1970
to over 2.07 million
hectares of pine and
eucalyptus plantations
today.
Although the forestry
companies argue that the
industry generates jobs,
activists and local
rural communities say
they are low-paying jobs
that offer poor working
conditions, and that
small farmers have been
displaced from their
land.
Reyes asserted that
regulations are needed,
for example, of
clear-cutting in areas
of heavy rainfall and of
the heavy concentration
of land, especially in
the hands of two large
logging companies,
Arauco and Mininco,
which are owned by the
Angelini and Matte
business conglomerates,
Chile’s two biggest
economic groups.
The only instrument that
regulates plantation
forestry in Chile is
Decree 701 from 1974,
which provides
incentives for the
expansion of the
industry.
Despite reforms of the
decree aimed at
increasing subsidies for
small landowners, "the
incentives continue to
fall into the same
hands, and Chilean
taxpayers are still
subsidising the large
economic consortiums,"
complained Reyes.
"That is the other big
debate that lies ahead.
The incentives provided
for by the decree expire
in 2010 and a review
will have to be carried
out then," said Liberona.
Although the pending
issues are delicate
ones, especially the
question of the
replacement of the
sclerophyllous dry
forest demanded by fruit
and avocado producers,
Liberona believes that
the learning and
experience gained by all
of the concerned parties
in the 15 years that it
took the law to wend its
way through Congress
could help speed up the
process.
"The sclerophyllous
forest is one of the
ecosystems hit hardest
by urban growth, the use
of firewood, and
agriculture, and very
little of it is left --
no more than 300,000
hectares," said Liberona.
"But it is very
important as a barrier
to desertification and
for sustaining the
waterways that supply
the population. It is
also rich in endemic
species of flora and
fauna, and contributes
to curbing the effects
of climate change," she
added.
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