By Anne Petermann
The second opening presentation of the IUFRO 2017 Tree Biotechnology conference in Concepcion, Chile on Monday was by Fernando Raga, representing CORMA–the Chilean Forestry Association, and Arauco–one of the two leading forestry companies in Chile. He gave an extensive (if industry-biased) description of the history of the forestry industry in Chile.
He started out with a barrage of statistics. For example, 23% of Chile’s land use is in forestry and of that 15% is in plantations, or “planted forests” as he called them, and 28% is in “productive native forest” (he did not define what this means). Forest products are some of the countries top exports.
Another statistic he cited was that 11.7% of the country’s population lives in poverty. He neglected to point out that the worst poverty is in the regions with the highest rates of industrial tree plantations.
The Araucanía region, the Maule region and the Bío Bío regions are the most important in country for forestry, according to Raga. The Araucanía and Maule regions have some of the highest poverty rates. Mapuche communities in the Araucanía region, for example, experience 33% poverty, with some communities suffering up to 60% poverty due to the loss of agricultural lands, water and native forests to plantation expansion.
Raga, however, insisted that planted forests had played a negligible role in native forest loss, with less than 3% of native forests converted to plantations in Chile. Most of the plantations, he said, have been located on bare soils to stop erosion and have, in fact, lowered pressure on native forests. Hurray plantations!
The World Resources Institute, however, reports that 25% of forests on slopes of less than 45 degrees were converted to native forests, resulting in 2,620,486 acres of plantations.
The Guardian reported that Chile’s Decree Law 701, established under the Pinochet regime, “subsidised 70% of plantation [expansion] costs, and over the next 40 years – and after the return to democracy – the sector received around $ 800m in taxpayers’ money. Three-quarters of the cash went to the two companies that dominate the industry: Arauco and CMPC.”
Raga forgot to mention that.
He did, however, discuss the fires. January 2017 was the worst ever wildfire season in Chile. 460,000 hectares of vegetation were lost, according to Raga, and 30 mills affected or destroyed.
And to top it off, 8-10% of plantations were destroyed, equal to 3 million m3 of wood production lost, he lamented. The poor suffering companies.
He neglected to mention the entire villages that were burned to the ground because of the fact that extremely flammable eucalyptus and pine plantations are planted right up to the border of many villages in clear violation of common sense. The timber companies have received widespread criticism for this practice since the fires.
He also made no mention in his 40 minute talk of the impact of infestation by insects–especially the sirex wood wasp Sirex noctilio–on the industry, or its role in the fires.
So during the Q&A I asked him.
“I have read about extensive insect infestations in the plantations. What role do you think this had in the severity of the fires?”
He looked at me blankly. “Insects? None. No. No impact.”
Surprised at his unequivocal answer, I did a little digging.
One recent report I found stated,
“…forest plantations of exotic species, mainly Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus species, have been affected by several insect invasions in the last years. These new invasions represent a challenge for the Chilean forest industry, making necessary the adoption of new silvicultural techniques and sanitary protocols for exporting wood products… Considering the increasing rate of detection of exotic insects in Chile, it becomes clear that invasive insects represent a current threat for Chilean forests and immediate actions are needed from the government, private companies and society to minimize their negative consequences.”
Another stated, “Sirex noctilio is one of the most important invasive pests that affect Pinus radiata plantations in Chile… in some areas, S. noctilio populations attain epidemic levels and no effective control methods exist to reduce large populations in a short period.”
Even the US Department of Agriculture issued a “Pest Alert” stating,
“This woodwasp was introduced inadvertently into New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. In these Southern Hemisphere countries, sirex woodwasp attacks exotic pine plantations, and it has caused up to 80 percent tree mortality. Most of the plantations are planted with North American pine species, especially Monterey pine (P. radiata) and loblolly pine (P. taeda).”
A forestry student sitting next to me asked why I would think insects were linked to the fires, and explained that biotic (insects) and abiotic (fire) factors are not considered together when looking at forest impacts.
Of course not.
Why, he asked, would the insect infestations make the fires worse.
Really?
Why would death and disease in a plantation create more fodder for fire?
Really?
Yikes.