“The Cascada Chile project will double the demand for wood chips in Chile and hence double the rate of forest destruction…. Cascade Chile is the biggest threat to the native forests of Chile.”

—Adriana Hoffmann, National Coordinator, Defenders of the Chilean Forests

Save Ancient Temperate Forests / Chile - Victory

Boise Cascade Corporation, infamous in northwestern U.S. for logging old-growth forests, is ready to reduce Chile’s temperate rainforests to chipboard and paper. Linked with Maderas Condor S.A. in a joint venture called Cascada Chile, Boise Cascade plans to build the world’s largest chip mill in Southern Chile’s Ilque Bay. All the trees will be logged in native forests.

The 5 million acres slated to be cut belong to landholders who will log the forest and sell timber to Boise Cascade. Because the company will not do the cutting, its environmental impact study covered only the chip mill site - not the forest. But the effects on the forest will be devastating. Boise Cascade will create the incentive and the means to log the forest, without having any responsibility for how the work is done.

In fact, logging is very poorly regulated in Chile; studies show that only 20 percent of loggers even have management plans. Moreover, Chilean environmentalists give strong reasons for not logging these forests at all.

Chile is gravely deforested already; soil erosion mars half the landscape and desertification threatens two-thirds. A 1995 study by Chile’s Central Bank predicts that with current methods of exploitation all of Chile’s unprotected native forests will be gone in 20 years. Of Chile’s original temperate rainforests, less than 40 percent remain - and they are a spectacular treasure of biodiversity and natural beauty.

Southern Chile’s varied landscape, altitude and climate create a wealth of ecosystems, giving these forests the highest rate of biodiversity in temperate zones. The World Wildlife Fund lists these forests among the 25 eco-regions most in need of protection for their remarkable biodiversity.

The forests targeted by Boise Cascade are home to the world’s smallest deer, the pudu, which stands only 15 inches high, and 40 other endangered or vulnerable mammals. Two of the most threatened tree species are conifers found only in Chile: the alerce tree that lives up to 4,000 years, and the araucaria, an "archetypal" tree whose ancestors date back 200 million years. These trees are appropriately declared "natural monuments."

Within Chile, a strong alliance of environmental groups, tourism operators, salmon companies, archeologists and civic leaders are using litigation, letters and demonstrations to stop the Cascada Chile project. Nature tourism is growing fast in the region, creating a wide variety of jobs for thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on preserving the forests. The salmon industry has appealed Boise Cascade’s environmental impact study, claiming it ignores negative effects on salmon production, and archaeologists want construction stopped until the chip mill site can be thoroughly excavated for ancient artifacts. A 1996 poll found that for 83% of people in Santiago, the loss of native forests is their main environmental concern.

Faced with widespread public opposition, Boise Cascade has summoned to its aid the same public relations firm that tried to patch up Exxon’s image after the Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

More information about this issue.

Make a donation for this campaign.

Write a letter for this campaign.

Campaign partner(s) and credits.