Chilean Lawyer Describes Threats to His Native Forests

In an interview conducted at the Cascadia Forest Alliance office in Portland, Oregon, Miguel Fredes of the Southern Environmental Law Center, defines the threats to his native forests in Chile.
Government subsidized logging, weak laws and even weaker law enforcement, coupled with the fact that 80% of the forests are in private hands, is leading to the rapid deforestation of a country which holds 1/4 to 1/3 of the world's temperate rainforests.
Mr. Fredes' comments conclude with facts about how the demand for wood products in many U.S. stores affect the native forests and people in Chile and appeals for U.S. citizens to assist his people in defending their Native Forests from destruction. He is in the U.S. as part of a campaign to educate American citizens about the threats to the natural resources of his country and, in cooperation with various American NGO's, demand that buyers and sellers of wood, paper and pulp products:
1. Stop buying products that come from endangered
forests.
2. Stop buying products that come from the conversion
of native forests into plantations.
3. Stop buying products that come from U.S. public
lands.
4. Reduce overall tree fiber consumption.
5. Shift to ecologically sustainable alternatives
including post-consumer recycled paper, reclaimed wood
and agricultural fibers; shift to products that are
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)certified.

Earlier in the day Mr. Fredes and local supporters held a rally at the corporate offices of MBC West, in Sherwood, Oregon, just outside Portland. BMC West is part of the U.S. wood distribution network that feeds this forest destruction in Chile, as well as in the Pacific Northwest. BMC West sells products derived from endangered forests, from the ancient forests on Alaska's public land to the forests of Chile, which are being mowed down to create mono-culture tree farms, which provide poor habitat for wildlife, and require a create deal of toxic chemical spraying to sustain.
At the same time that the U.S. is logging the last of its own native forests, it is also devastating the native forests of other countries. In places like Chile, native forests are being destroyed at a rate of 120,000 to 200,0000 hectares/year, which is equal to cutting an area four times the size of the City of Portland each year.

FACTS ABOUT CHILE'S NATIVE FORESTS
Globally Rare, Irreplaceable & Disappearing Fast!

90% of the species in Chile's native forests are found nowhere else in the world.

One quarter to one-third of the world's remaining temperate rainforests are located in Chile.

The Araucaria tree and the Alerce trees are two of the rarest tree species on the planet. The Araucaria is the world's oldest surviving tree species (200 million years). The Alerce's life span (3 to 4 thousand years) is second only to California's Bristlecone Pine.

In one 10-year period (1985 to 1995), Chile lost 4.5 million acres of productive native forests.

The baseline of native forest conversion to tree farms over the last 10 years in Chile has been approximately 300,000 acres per year.

By the year 2015, the forest products industry hopes to double the extent of tree farms in Chile, from approximately 4.5 million acres today to approximately 9 million acres in 2015.

If this expansion of tree farms happens in Chile, another 2.5 million acres of Chile's native forests will disappear by the year 2015.
Radiata Pine Products: A Major Threat to Chile's Native Forests

One of the major threats to Chile's native forests is the substitution of non-native monocultures (tree farms) for rare and endangered native forests. Ninety percent of all wood exported from Chile comes from its non-native tree farms.

Three million acres of these non-native tree farms in Chile are Radiata Pine--the largest expanse of it in the world.

Every year another 300,000 acres of native forest is converted to non-native tree farms in Chile.

The United States is the #1 destination for the wood products exported from these
tree farms.

The leading wood products exported from Chile are wood strips and mouldings from Radiata Pine tree farms destined to lumber and home-building stores in the U.S. and other countries.

(Some of this information was compiled from press releases and media packets provided by Forest Ethics and Cascadia Forest Alliance.)