Miguel Fredes, staff attorney, FIMA, CHILE
Since Chile has joined many free trade agreements, it has expanded exports of primary resources such as timber products. This has dramatically increased the pressure on its biodiversity, increased levels of pollutants in the environment, and resulted in massive overuse of natural resources.
Also, Chile's forestry policy has provoked an uncontrollable surge in the destruction of Chile's native forest, to be replaced with exotic plantations. Logging sector are causing grave damage to the south's native forest heritage and the fragile ecosystem of the temperate rainforest. Large corporations from Japan and the United States plan to log these native hardwoods.
In the other hand, current Chilean forest laws and linked regulations have not being enforced. Chilean regulations focus only on promoting economic forest development such as Decree Law No. 701 but lack natural and cultural heritage conservation and protection. (The Native Forests law still currently under discussion among Ministries and Parliament AFTER 6 YEARS).
Currently, Decree Law 701 (1974) requires management plans before native forests are cut and places scare limitations to the substitution of native forest by plantations. Enforcement of the forestry sector laws focuses mainly on illegal cutting. However, capacity for enforcement is extremely precarious. The government assessed US$500,000 between 1991-93, although only about 8% were collected.
Although, Chile does not holds sufficient technical, human and financial resources to enforce forest laws, preserve endangered species and protect wildlife areas and does not have a natural resources policy to assure sustainable use of natural resources, during the last 5 years the Government have accelerated all procedures to join bilateral and multilateral trade treaties such as NAFTA and Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement.
Also since WTO negotiations were frustrated due public interest organizations and activists pressure in Seattle Meeting, Chile's Permanent Mission in Geneva have suggested the Government accelerate all possible fast track to join NAFTA.
Canada-Chile Treaty flows from the urgency to negotiate an interim bilateral free trade agreement as a bridge to NAFTA accession.:
