Facilitating the Way for Implementation of Sustainable Forest Management. The Case of Chile

By José Antonio Prado, Carlos Weber
Instituto Forestal (INFOR)
Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF)
Santiago, Chile, March 2003.

For delivery at: UNFF Intersessional Experts Meeting on the Role of Planted Forests in Sustainable Forest Management, 24-30 March 2003, New Zealand

Introduction

Sustainable management of all types of forests is one of the greatest challenges that arose from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Since then the international community has made a significant effort to advance towards the conservation and sustainable management of the world’s forest resources. Slightly more than ten years later, although significant advances have taken place in different spheres, implementation of the agreements oriented to promote sustainable forest management has been slow and, in some countries, practically non-existent.

A great portion of mankind depends on forests and trees as its main source of energy, generating a great pressure on the world’s forest resources. Close to 1,749 million cubic metres of wood are consumed annually as firewood and coal (FAO, 2000), representing more than 50% of the world consumption of wood. Furthermore, the use of timber from natural forests as industrial raw material, although it has shown a slight decline in the last few years, is an important cause of the degradation of forests. Notwithstanding this, it should be borne in mind that agriculture and livestock breeding continue to be the primary cause of the destruction of forests, extraction of firewood being a comparatively less important factor.

Considering this situation, many countries, among them Chile, have opted for the creation of new forest resources through the use of fast-growing species capable of generating large quantities of timber per unit of surface area and time. Generation of timber by this means opens up important possibilities for management and conservation of natural forests and for efficient industrial development with scant negative environmental and social impacts, provided that basic aspects of conservation of soil, water and biological diversity are taken into account and that legal and institutional adjustments are adopted for the purpose of integrating the interests of the landowners with those of the neighbouring communities. In this way, by supplying wood in a permanent and efficient manner, planted forests are capable of making an effective contribution to sustainable forest management; to the recovery of areas that are degraded or in the process of desertification and, in general, to sustainable development at national level.

Chile is one of the pioneer countries in the creation of forest resources of high productivity by means of fast-growing planted forests. In view of the abundance of lands either deforested or in the process of deterioration due to agriculture and grazing, all the governments, for more than a century, have supported reforestation. Aside from having generated a forest resource capable of sustaining an industry that produces close to US$ 4 billion annually, planted forests have generated another number of environmental and social benefits, being the most important their effect on the rehabilitation of vast areas of degraded lands.

Chile’s forest policy has always been geared to achieving protection of natural forests through regulatory measures for their use and to promotion of fast-growing planted forests as a source of supply of wood for industrial and other uses. Thus, since decades before the sustainable forest management concept emerged, measures had been adopted in this direction, planted forests being a key factor in this strategy.

In the second half of the ‘60s there occurred two important developments whose coincidence in time was not fortuitous. In those years, production of timber originating from planted forests exceeded that originating from natural forests, a fact that was known and commented in specialised circles as well as at government and media level. During that same period, the State decreed as national parks and other protected areas an important portion of the State-owned forests, which represented approximately 25% of the country’s total natural forests. This protection measure was adopted only because the decision-makers were sure that the supply and future growth of the forest industry would not require the logging of the State’s forests. This is an example of the way that planted forests ease the pressure on consumptive use of natural forests. Later, in 1975, a law was passed that established additional regulations for private landowners whereby as of that date they had to obtain authorisation from the State in order to harvest their own forests.

This paper briefly analyses the contribution made by planted forests to the development of Chile’s forestry sector and the policies, conditions and actions that facilitate sustainable management of the country’s forests, soils and waters.

Contribution of Planted Forests to Sustainable Forest Management.

1. The economic contribution

Given below is a brief summary of the factors that led to the creation of a forest resource based on planted forests and of how these forests provided support for the development of Chile’s forestry sector.

Creation of a new resource by means of planted forests

At the beginning of the 20th Century, for the purpose of confronting a serious situation of destruction and degradation of soils, resulting from the abandonment of lands devoted to wheat production, reflected in the appearance of vast coastal sand dunes, emerged the first actions of the State considering the planting of fast-growing species as a mean to counteract these degradation processes. The first trials with Pinus and Eucalyptus species were established in 1903 by Federico Albert, a German naturalist employed by the State.

The creation of forest resources for distinctly productive purposes began around the year 1920. The company Compañía Carbonífera de Lota established the first planted forests for the supply of its coal-mining operations. In 1925 the State, through its Forests Law, established the first incentives for afforestation and restricted the deforestation of natural forests. This brought as a consequence an increase in the planting rate, especially on soils that presented severe erosion (Lara and Veblen, 1993). As of 1940, private planted forests were encouraged through consortiums and low-interest loans (Unda and Ravera, 1994), giving rise to an afforestation process that continues today.

In 1955 there were already more than 200,000 hectares of planted forests, mostly (90%) of Pinus radiata. The remainder was made up of other species, with predominance of Eucalyptus spp. The same survey that established these figures (CORFO, 1955) drew attention to the existence, in only the central provinces of the country, of 1.5 million hectares of lands which, because of their capability or the degree of erosion they presented, urgently required a forest cover.

Source: Unda and Ravera, 1994; INFOR, 2001.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the planting rate diminished considerably by 1955, as a result of the elimination of promotion mechanisms. It was only in 1965 that a new impulse for afforestation began, with participation of the State and the private sector. In 1970 the State created the "Corporación de Reforestación", for the purpose of recovering, through the establishment of planted forests, in association with private landowners, the vast areas abandoned by agriculture. In 1975, by means of the Decree Law 701 of 1974, the direct action of the State is replaced by financial support provided by the State to private land owners and companies, increasing the expansion of planted forests, which, at present, cover more than to 2.0 million hectares. In spite of the importance of this incentive, less than half of total planted forests have been established under this promotion mecanism.

The creation of this new resource made it possible to gradually shift the supply of industrial wood from the natural forests to the planted ones. As of the ‘60s the greater part of the lumber originates from Radiata pine plantations. At present, planted forests supply more than 90% of all the wood for industrial use.

Development of the forest industry

The creation of the forest resource by means of planted forests brought with it industrial development, through private investment added to a significant participation of the State, particularly in the creation of the pulp and board industries. In the ‘60s and part of the ‘70s the State made significant investments in the forest industry.

Since 1975, all industrial development passed into private hands. The State privatised its industries and transferred to the private sector the responsibility of increasing the resources, establishing an incentive to afforestation and management of planted forests. Parallel to this, the general economic policies created a favourable atmosphere for the participation of the private sector in forest development. This interest was reflected in the private investment in the sector, which during the past 25 years amounts to close to US$ 5.5 billion, giving rise to an important wood-processing industry and road and port infrastructure.(Cerda, 1998)

Table 1. Chile’s Forest Industry. 2001

PRIMARY FOREST PRODUCT MANUFACTURING

Pulp (Mt)

Sawmilling (Mm³)

Chips (Mm³)

Panels and veneers (Mm³)

Paper and paperboard (Mt)

2.668

5.872

6.186

1.307

877

Source: INFOR, 2002

International trade

Another fundamental element for the development of Chile’s forestry sector has been its capacity to open up new markets, first for primary products and later for products with greater added value. The maintenance and growth of the markets have demanded an effort in terms of product quality and standardisation and improvement of productive processes.

The establishment of planted forests, industrial development and the opening of new markets, to which are added favourable global conditions, enabled a rapid development of the sector which is clearly reflected in the evolution of forest products exports. In only 25 years they increased from slightly more than US$ 100 million to around US$ 2.3 billion in 2002.

Source: INFOR, 2002

2. Impact of planted forests on sustainable forest management from the environmental viewpoint.

Planted forests have had a positive impact on the environment, in different ambits, especially on the recovery of degraded soils, recovery of biological diversity, carbon sequestration and recovery of the landscape. The critics of planted forests in Chile often forget that the alternative to these forests is not a dense and rich natural forest, which was destroyed more than a century ago, but rather lands devoid of plant cover and in the process of increasing deterioration.

In order to value the real impact of planted forests on the recovery of soils, it is important to make a brief historical summary of land use in the regions that today are occupied by planted forests. Originally, the indigenous population used to burn natural vegetation in order to clear lands for growing maize, causing a significant impact on the soils and the landscape inasmuch as this involved a numerous farmer population. With the arrival of the Spaniards the deforestation process became more dynamic, opening up spaces for the first cities, for agricultural activity and for a new activity, unknown until then by the indigenous population: livestock grazing. Furthermore, being mining one of the principal economic activities of the settlers, the use of forests as fuel for smelting ores was one of the main causes of deforestation. Chile’s first forest regulation provided for the so-called "Forest Claims", which assigned to the mining activity priority in the use of forests, even against the will of the owner of the land and without payment to him.

By the middle of the 17th Century there was a considerable increase in wheat production, both for domestic consumption and for export to Peru (David, 1998). In the 19th Century, the gold rushes in California and New South Wales, Australia, generated a huge increase in wheat production, achieved at the expense of clearing vast extensions of land in the Coastal cordillera of Regions VI to VIII which were covered by dense forests with predominance of Nothofagus species. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests were devastated in order to sow wheat, without considering that in most cases the soils were not fit for agriculture. This led to a rapid loss of productivity and to degradation, as a result of which further lands were cleared.

Another important factor in the loss of natural forests was the colonisation of the present Araucanía and Los Lagos Regions, which began in the middle of the 19th Century. The settlers, mainly Germans, cleared lands for agriculture and pasture lands in areas covered by dense temperate rainforests.

As a result of these deforestation processes, by the year 1900, practically 50% of the forests in central Chile had disappeared, giving way to agricultural and grazing activities. It is on these soils, very often degraded and devoid of vegetation, that the majority of the planted forests existing in Chile have been established. Paredes (2002) mentions that 87 % of planted forests have been established on eroded lands. The afforestation of these areas made it possible to halt and reverse soil degradation processes, normalise the hydrological cycle and recover the native fauna and vegetation. It is important to mention that in most cases there is no evidence of a lost of productivity of these planted forests, even after two rotations. On the contrary, due to the use of improved genetic material and silvicultural practices, productivity tends to increase.(Dunn, F.; Schlatter, J. Pers. Comm. 2003).

With regard to biological diversity, the impact of planted forests is both direct and indirect. The protection given to the planted forests against animals, fire and other damaging agents has enabled the recovery of the natural vegetation along the streams and small creeks situated within the lands covered by planted forests. It is also important to mention that private land owners and the forestry companies own significant areas, covered with natural vegetation, which today are devoted to protection.

Indirectly, planted forests have had a great bearing on the conservation of natural forests. In the case of Chile, for close to four decades the greater part of the industrial raw material and a considerable quantity of firewood have originated from planted forests, considerably easing the pressure on the native forests. This has enabled a significant recovery of this resource. An evidence of this recovery is the existence of 3.6 million ha. of second growth forests (CONAF-CONAMA-BIRF, 1997).

Planted forests have also generated negative impacts, especially owing to the substitution of natural forests with planted ones. Nonetheless, this represents a very little proportion within the causes of loss of natural vegetation. According to the information available, it can be estimated that between 1 and 2% of the total loss of natural vegetation can be attributed to planted forests.

In relation to other possible impacts on soil and water, it is important to analyse the effect of planted forests at the landscape level and not only at the management unit level, inasmuch as many of the criticisms are based on the generalisation of specific situations rather than on a comparative and rigorous analysis.

3. Impact of planted forests on the social aspect.

Planted forests are the basis of an important forest industry, which is the country’s second largest source of foreign currency and generates close to 130,000 direct and 300,000 indirect jobs. Around the forest industry, numerous small businesses have developed which provide different services throughout the productive chain.

It is also important to highlight that the Chilean forestry companies are owned by local investors, and to recognise that today 80% of the new plantings are carried out by the very farmers who own the land. This fact alone indicates that there is an interesting potential for social benefit based on planted forests.

On the other hand, there are those who want to associate plantations with rural poverty. In Chile, at commune level, there is a correlation between poverty and the existence of planted forests, the cause of the problem being attributed to the latter. However, it was the collapse of marginal agriculture and grazing that caused poverty and emigration, giving way to the forestry activity. Prosperous farmers do not replace profitable crops with planted forests nor do they sell their lands to forestry companies..

In any case, the forestry activity with vast areas of planted forests is not free of social problems. If the companies do not adopt proactive measures in their relationship with the neighbouring communities, they can generate negative impacts, affecting their traditional way of life. These problems have not been absent in the case of Chile.

In the last few years, several companies have been devoting more time and resources to establishing a better association with their neighbouring communities, contributing to their education and recreation and generating processes of association and creation of small businesses, thus enabling these communities to share, in this way, in the benefits generated by the planted forests.

Elements that facilitate sustainable forest management

Shown below is a discussion of the principal factors that have had a bearing on the advance of the forestry sector toward sustainability. Although it is a matter of concepts of a general type, they are intimately associated with the creation of planted forests, which has been the principal expression of Chile’s forest policy.

Forest policy and economic policies appropriate to long-term investment

Political commitment has been a fundamental factor in the development of the sector, inasmuch as since 1930, with brief intervals, there has existed a forest policy aimed at promotion of planted forests and conservation of natural forests. Worthy of highlighting is the permanence of a tacit forest policy, expressed through diverse instruments – both tax and banking – and of other promotion mechanisms that the State has employed to arouse the interest of companies and private landowners in afforestation projects. The political commitment with the forestry sector has also been expressed in the direct action of the State, both in the establishment of planted forests and in the creation of important forest industries. At the end of ‘60s and the beginning of the ‘70s the State made significant investments in the pulp industry.

However, it is not only the forest policy that has been important for the development of Chile’s forestry sector. The macroeconomic policies, which generate the conditions for private investment in a sector where the returns are obtained in the long term, are also important. The stability of the economic, tax and land ownership policies is fundamental for the development of a sustainable forestry sector.

Deregulation of trade and opening of markets

Another of the key elements in the development of Chile’s forestry sector has been the complete deregulation of trade in forest products and the permanent search for new markets. In 1975 the State eliminated all the regulations that restricted trade in forest products. Until that time the export of wood without some degree of processing was not permitted, a fact that in practice only favoured the manufacturing industry and restricted the cash income of small and medium-size landowners, who perceived the forest as a resource of little value and consequently tended to neglect or even eliminate it.

Along with the deregulation process, the forestry companies made a remarkable effort to open up new markets, particularly in the Asian countries which for many years were to be the main destination markets for Chile’s forest products. At present, the United States market is the main customer for Chile’s forest products.

As shown in Figure 3, forest product exports have increased remarkably between 1975 and the present, a fact that has also produced a substantial advance in diversification and in adding value to forest products. There is a distinct diminishing trend in exports of primary products with little processing, while exports of processed products have shown sustained growth.

Criteria and Indicators and Certification Processes

Chile’s participation in the Montreal Process, regarding Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management, and the recommendations and international commitments agreed in the framework of the Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD) of the United Nations, have provided a basis for disseminating the knowledge and analysing the concepts associated with sustainable forest management among the public and private decision-makers. The application of these concepts at management unit level is advancing gradually.

The certification mechanisms have been an important contribution to the process of adoption of sustainable forest management. Most of the large and medium-size Chilean forestry companies consider the certification processes to be an important part of their operations. First came certification of environmental management according to ISO standards and more recently the companies have begun the sustainable forest management certification processes, through the FSC. More than 90% of the certified forests in Chile are planted forests.

Chile is developing its own certification system, CERTFOR Chile, which today is in the process of international homologation and recognition. This system seeks to broaden the alternatives available for companies that wish to obtain certification and its purpose is also to facilitate the access of small and medium-size businesses for which the cost of other certifications is too high.

Institutional Framework and Participation

The existence of a forestry institutional framework that is stable, organised and effective and has credibility is another important factor for making sustainable forest management possible in the development of the sector. In 1970 the State created the Corporación de Reforestación with the mission of recovering vast areas of land degraded by agriculture and livestock breeding, by means of the establishment of planted forests. Two years later the Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF), the present forest service of the State, was created. In addition to the creation of forest resources, this service was assigned other responsibilities associated with protection of forests against fire and other harmful agents as well as with the administration of the State’s forest lands, including the National Parks and Reserves. CONAF, in spite of being an institution whose creation was relatively recent, enjoys a meaningful recognition on the part of the forestry sector and of the society in general. Nonetheless, it is believed that it is necessary to reinforce its capabilities in order to enhance the effectiveness of its participation in the sustainable management of forests as well as in their protection and conservation. Work is at present under way on new legislation to reinforce the institutional framework of the forestry sector.

The active participation of the different interest groups, in order to arrive at common definitions and views, is fundamental for the purpose of reinforcing the political commitment with regard to conservation and sustainable management of the forests and for advancing effectively in the generation of policies and mechanisms for the application of sustainable forest management. In Chile, the body where this discussion takes place is the so-called "Forestry Round Table", which assembles different State agencies, companies, rural organisations, academicians and NGOs, generating a positive relationship between its participants. Although still it has not been possible to resolve the main controversies, particularly those associated with management and conservation of natural forests, or to completely eliminate the mistrust that exists between the different groups, this body has enabled the achievement of considerable advances.

Development and transfer of technology

The existence of an appropriate research capacity and of professional capabilities, within both the State organisations and the forestry companies, enabled the development and transfer of locally generated technology as well as an appropriate flow of knowledge from countries with a greater degree of development in the forestry field. This led to a rapid advance in the implementation of techniques for establishment, management and utilisation of planted forests and to the incorporation of the sustainable forest management concept, resulting in widespread adoption, in only a few years, of environmental management models and certification systems. In Chile, more than 50 % of timber production is incorporated to environmental management systems.

This capacity made it possible to obtain rapid advances in aspects such as genetic improvement, thanks to the adoption of the Cooperative model; the application of intensive techniques at planting and advanced models for management and harvest. The establishment and management of planted forests with cutting-edge technology and permanent adaptation to the requirements imposed by globalisation have enabled the large companies in Chile’s forestry sector to maintain their competitiveness in the markets.

The great challenge for the coming years is to ensure that small and medium-size forest owners and industrialists adopt technologies, operating systems and certification methods that can enable them to participate more effectively in the development of the sector.

Future actions

The existence of almost 2.5 million hectares of planted forests and a projected increase of 40,000 to 50,000 hectares a year lead to assumption of the existence of 3.5 million hectares by around the year 2020. Projections also estimate an availability of more than 40 million cubic metres of timber originating from planted forests, which will demand a great processing and commercialising effort in a market that is increasingly competitive. This faces us with a number of challenges.

Advancing toward sustainable forest management.

One important task is to continue to advance toward sustainable forest management of all forests, for which purpose it is necessary to advance in the internal agreements with all the interest groups and in the development and application of policies that reflect the international agreements, among them the Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management and the agreements made in the processes generated by the United Nations (IPF/IFF/UNFF). To this effect, it is important to reinforce the political commitment at different levels, through greater dissemination of the concepts involved in sustainable forest management and increased stakeholder participation, among others.

Also, in the same direction, it is important to strengthen the certification mechanisms, extending them to small and medium-size landowners, so that they can take part in the process of development of the sector in conditions of greater equality with respect to the large companies.

Maintenance of afforestation incentives

Incentives for afforestatiion have proved to be an important mechanism in Chile’s forest policy. Taking into consideration that there are still millions of hectares without forest cover, Chile’s forest policy considers the continuation of afforestation incentives, albeit with a new approach: i) support for small and medium-size landowners, who until now have had scant participation in the development of the sector and who own more than 2 million hectares of land fit for forestry that is at present devoid of tree cover; ii) incentives for planted forests aimed at recovering soils that are degraded or in the process of desertification; iii) promotion of diversification of planted forests, looking for new species and new products

Information

One of the key elements for the future development of the sector in a globalised and highly competitive setting is information. The State institutions and the forestry business and landowner organisations must strengthen mechanisms of communication and collaboration aimed at providing relevant national as well as international information. Information on the existence of resources as well as on markets, prices and development of new products will be particularly important.

Another important action for advancing toward sustainable forest management is to make known to producers the many promotion instruments which, although they are not specific to the forestry sector, can be of help in putting into practice sustainable forms of management. In Chile there are close to 50 promotion instruments that are potentially usable in the forestry sector.

Strengthening of the small and medium-size manufacturing industry

One of the major challenges facing Chile’s forestry sector is the need to develop a small and medium-size forest industry capable of adding value to the products and of competing in the international markets, with a view to offering primary producers an alternative independent of the large companies, which because of their size and vertical integration do not always offer opportunities for the small and medium-size producer. In this way, the forestry sector will be able to increase its contribution to the national economy and to generate an important demand for qualified labour. This development requires unwavering support on the part of the State, promoting the concept of associability in order to attain economies of scale, as well as an additional effort in connection with technology transfer.

Conclusion

One century after the first planting trials with introduced species, planted forests are the base of one of the most dynamic sectors of Chile’s economy. Close to 15% of the country’s exports are forest products.

This process has been possible thanks to a number of factors, prominent among them being:

A stable forest policy, which throughout one century has favoured the establishment of planted forests for productive purposes as well as for recovery of degraded lands.
National companies, both private and state-owned, that invested in the forestry sector.
Appropriate professional capability, within private companies as well as within State organisations.
Availability of lands with no alternative use.
Existence of a transportation infrastructure that makes commercialisation of the production possible.
Security in land ownership.
Total opening of markets for products originating from planted forests.

The Chilean experience indicates that these are the minimum conditions necessary for generating the base for a type of forest management which, in addition to being sustainable, represents an important contribution to the development of a country. The case of Chile, as well as that of other countries in the southern hemisphere, proves that it is possible to develop a resource and a sustainable forest activity on the basis of planted forests which in their majority have been established on marginal lands abandoned by agriculture and livestock breeding.

References

Cerda, I. 1998. Trayectoria del Sector Forestal. Informe Técnico N° 140, Instituto Forestal, Nov. 1998. 145 pp.

CONAF-CONAMA-BIRF, 1997. Catastro y Evaluación. Recursos Vegetacionales Nativos de Chile. Resultados Finales. Síntesis. Corporación Nacional Forestal; Comisión Nacional del Medio Ambiente y Banco Mundial. 12 pp.

CORFO, 1955. Mensura de las Plantaciones Forestales de las Provincias de Linares y Malleco. 1953-1954. Volume N° 1. Corporación de Fomento de la Producción. Santiago, 1955.

David, F. J. 1998. El trigo en Chile. Una Historia Desconocida. Ediciones del Día. 641 pp.

FAO, 2001. Anuario Productos Forestales, 1995-1999. Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, Roma. 228 pp.

INFOR, 2002. Estadísticas Forestales 2001. Boletín Estadístico 84. Instituto Forestal, Santiago, September 2002.

Lara, A. and Veblen, T. 1993. Forest Plantations in Chile: a successful model? Afforestation. Policies, planning and progress. Edited by Alexander Mather.

Paredes. G. 2002. Chilean Forestry: The Impact of Fast Growing Species on Shaping the Future’s Forest Sector. Forest Management Institute. Universidad Austral de Chile. (Unpublished Document) 9pp.

Unda and Ravera, 1994. Análisis Histórico de Sitios de Establecimiento de las Plantaciones Forestales en Chile. Instituto Forestal. Unidad de Medio Ambiente. Abril, 1994. 130 pp. (Internal Document).

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