Chile foresters fight back with image campaign
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited
September 11, 2000
By Gustavo Oviedo
SANTIAGO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Tired of being labeled as pillagers by environmentalists, Chile's forestry industry, which is the country's second largest export sector, has gone on the offensive.
Last month industry leaders, under the name of Forests for Chile, launched an advertising campaign that will cost $1 million this year and that aims to convince the public that controlled exploitation is compatible with reforestation.
``This campaign will help us with our goals,'' Guillermo Julio, dean of the forestry science faculty at the University of Chile, told Reuters. ``Chileans need to be informed objectively.''
``Evil men with pockets overflowing with cash, looking to make a quick buck and destroying people and nature -- that is an outdated, one-sided stereotype,'' said Eduardo Correa, executive vice president at the Chilean Wood Corp. lobby group.
But don't tell that to Malu Sierra, member of the non-governmental organisation Defenders of Chilean Forests. ``The forestry sector has undermined itself because of its severe social and environmental impacts. It is an environmentally destructive and socially unjust activity,'' she said.
``It is time for the state to invest in sustainable activities and not support one of the country's most economically powerful sectors,'' she added.
With shipments of $1.955 billion, the forestry sector made up 11 percent of Chile's exports last year, said the central bank. The Chilean Wood Corp. expects the sector this year to post sales of at least $2.4 billion and it sees $4.2 billion being invested in the industry between 1999 and 2005.
Woodpulp is Chile's second most important export, squeezed between copper and fishmeal. The United States and Asia are the main destinations of Chile's forestry shipments.
The Forestry Institute at the University of Chile estimated that 45 percent of Chile has the potential to be exploited for its timber. It said Chile's native forests could cover all of Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.
SETBACKS
Foresters have already had a few run-ins with opponents. The historically warlike Mapuche Indians in southern Chile are demanding that the land that is being exploited be returned to them. People claiming to be Mapuches have ambushed police and clashed with forestry's companies' guards.
In August, environmentalists cheered after the government said that Forestal Savia, formerly known as U.S. timber firm Trillium, halted a $200 million project to exploit native forests of the lenga tree in Tierra del Fuego.
Environmentalists had argued that the removal of the trees would damage the ecosystem. As well as stabilising the climate, the trees prevent erosion exacerbated by the violent winds in the area and by a fragile topsoil, they said.
In another blow to foresters, several months ago a group of environmentalists filed a petition in Canada against a $180 million project by Idaho-based Boise Cascade Crop. (NYSE:BCC - news) and Chile's Maderas Condor SA, claiming Chile violated environmental legislation when local authorities approved the project's environmental impact statement. By doing so, they argue, Chile violated a bilateral treaty with Canada.
The project includes the construction of a port in southern Chile and plants to produce wood chips and Oriented Strand Board. Because the company would purchase the wood from surrounding land owners, opponents say the project would result in random cutting without any guarantee of replanting.
With participants bogged down in defending their positions, the forestry industry says valuable time is being wasted and that neighbouring countries are nipping at Chile's heels.
``In Argentina and Uruguay there are incentives, and many Chilean foresters have gone there to take advantage of them....We must not lose the opportunity to grow,'' said Jose Letamendi, president of the Chilean Wood Corp.