Fuegian Forest Under Threat
At the end of 1993, a US multinational company, Trillium Co., bought 2700 square kilometres of forest in the Chilean half of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and followed this up with a purchase, in 1994, of almost a thousand square kilometres in the Argentinian half. Faced with ever tightening environmental legislation and well- organized pressure groups at home, Trillium seemed to have found easy pickings in Tierra del Fuego: vast swathes of ancient temperate hardwood forest in an area with a tiny population base and a young, emergent political structure. Their interest lay primarily in a wood ideal for the furniture industry: Patagonian lenga (high deciduous beech). The issue had all the hallmarks of a neocolonial hit-and-run raid. No thorough, independent environmental impact studies had been carried out; no system had been elaborated for regular supervision of the company's logging practices; and no consideration had been given to the potential value of the forests as a future tourist resource. Envisaging a repeat of the disastrous rape of the temperate forests similar to that which has occurred in recent decades in mainland Chilean Patagonia, environmental groups Defensores de los Bosques Chilenos on the Chilean side, and Finis Terrae , based in Ushuaia, resolved not to let Trillium steamroller local concerns. The groups scored several legal victories along the way, despite woefully inadequate resources. In 1999, just after logging had started in Chile, permission to proceed with logging in Argentina was finally granted, despite petitions that demonstrated the remarkable degree of public concern about the issue on an island that depends heavily on tourism, but these decisions are being appealed against. Environmental damage could well be catastrophic. Soil erosion is a great fear: topsoils on the island are very thin, winds are strong, and there's heavy rainfall. A diverse native forest ecosystem can absorb up to fifty times as much rainfall as agricultural land; with much of this felled, the purity of the island's lakes and streams would be affected by run-off and wood pulp. Regeneration takes at least thirty years, with most lenga trees taking over a hundred years to reach maturity. Naturally, environmental groups would like to see the cessation of all logging if possible, believing the value of the forests far exceeds the value of their timber. However, if logging is to continue, the groups aim to ensure that the local community benefits in some way, with wood being processed on the island for high-value manufactured items such as furniture parts, and not just exported as planks. Their campaign will focus on ensuring that the company is committed to sustainable practices, so that promised jobs and investment do indeed prove to be long term. For more information on the campaign, contact Finis Terrae, Ap. Postal No. 22, C.P. 9410 Ushuaia (phone 02901/434122, fax 433302)
Tierra del FuegoMaria says "A place along the coastline, mountains surround it and it is lovely."
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