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ENVIRONMENT: Chile Finally Has a Native Forests Law

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Dec 20 2007 (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&#39t 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.