Chile:
Professional foresters denounce violations by company certified
by CERTFOR and FSC
Tree plantations
owned and operated by Forestal Valdivia S.A., a subsidiary of the
Arauco group, have not only been granted certification by the Chilean
sustainable forest management system CERTFOR (backed by the international
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification or PEFC label),
but also chain of custody certification from the FSC (SGS-COC-005376).
According to CERTFOR’s
website, “This standard allows forest owners [or rather, plantation
owners] to demonstrate that the management they have applied meets
the social, economic and environmental performance requirements
that the relevant stakeholders demand.” For its part, FSC
certification is meant to promote “environmentally appropriate,
socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's
forests [including plantations].”
Therefore, certification
by both organizations would seem to be a double guarantee for socially
conscious consumers, who want to make sure that the products they
buy have not caused any harmful impacts on other people or on the
environment. However, a press release recently issued by the Association
of Foresters For Native Forests (AIFBN) in Chile casts serious doubts
on the validity of this assumption.
Since 2008, a team
of experts from the AIFBN have conducted a series of reconnaissance
flights over the Andes and Coastal mountain ranges in the regions
of Los Ríos and Los Lagos in order to assess the state of
conservation and possible destruction of native forest areas.
The AIFBN revealed
that, “Based on the analysis of the data gathered, areas with
evidence of illegal forest clearing were identified, leading to
the detection of 23 irregularities committed on different properties,
which were reported to the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF)
in July of last year. This state agency investigated all of the
reports filed, and confirmed that breaches of current forestry legislation
had been committed in every case.” Among the worst offenders
identified in the study is the doubly certified Forestal Valdivia.
When consulted,
forester Cristián Frene (listed as the contact person in
the AIFBN press release) commented: “If this monitoring was
repeated in the regions farther north (Bío Bío, Maule
and Araucanía), I can assure you that the panorama would
be even worse, but unfortunately no one does this kind of work in
those areas.”
Referring specifically
to the reported breaches committed by Forestal Valdivia in the commune
of Lanco, the press release stresses that “the properties
harvested through clearcutting by the above-mentioned company are
part of a mountain that provides water to five communities located
within the commune of Lanco, where at least 700 people are affected
by the harvesting of plantations and subsequent burning of NATIVE
vegetation with highly toxic chemicals.” In addition, the
note adds, “in the northern area of the mountain… there
are currently 45 legally recognized Mapuche communities with a total
of 1,258 Mapuche families, according to figures from the 2002 census.”
This combination
of the confirmed destruction of native forest alongside the serious
impacts of the company’s management of its plantations led
the AIFBN to denounce to the National Forestry Corporation “the
extremely serious breaches of environmental legislation committed
by the company Forestal Valdivia, a subsidiary of the Arauco Group,
in the commune of Lanco, in the northern portion of the region of
Los Ríos.”
The press release
adds that these breaches “additionally imply a total lack
of social conscience, through the lack of respect for the sources
of water for Mapuche communities in this region. Since February
of this year, the company has sent subcontractors to eliminate existing
NATIVE vegetation with highly toxic chemicals. These chemicals,
when applied to the vegetation, remain in the soil and are washed
by rainwater into the surrounding waterways, which supply water
to hundreds of families in the locality of Antilhue.”
In view of all
this, what do CERTFOR’s guarantee of the fulfilment of “social,
economic and environmental performance requirements” and the
FSC’s guarantee of “environmentally appropriate and
socially beneficial management” really amount to? In this
case, at least, the answer is clear: a ploy aimed at deceiving consumers.
This article is
based on a press release entitled “Una historia de no respeto
a los bosques nativos y la ley forestal”, issued in May 2010
by the Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque
Nativo (AIFBN). Contact: Cristián Frene cristianfrene@bosquenativo.cl
http://www.ecoportal.net/content/view/full/93312
