A FOREST POLICY

NEED

The forests, plantations and woodlands of Chile represent a natural resource of great potential value. Growing under favorable climatic conditions, physically accessible for the most part by rail or water with reasonable transportation developments, containing species of good quality and with high potential growth rates, the natural forest area represents on a per capita basis one of the largest areas of virgin, high quality, temperate zone hardwoods of the world. In addition, the important and growing plantation area, largely softwood, has an enormous productive capacity still capable of material expansion and species diversification.

The forest resource, protected from fire and placed under even crude forest management is capable of permanently sustaining several times the industry now based upon it. The opportunity for immediate expansion of the forest industries is promising though such development will call for production, industrial, and managerial talents of high quality. But this is not enough for sound development in the national interest. What is needed is an imaginative and well administered forest policy, which, coupled with full utilization of the raw material available, can make Chile's forest resource one of the permanent mainstays of her industrial economy. Only in this way can Chile make one-fifth of her land contribute in full measure to the comfort and prosperity of her people.

WHAT IT SHOULD PROVIDE

A forest policy for Chile should provide for full use of the forest resource in perpetuity. Obviously this will not be easy nor can it be done immediately. A good start has already been made in the basic forest law of June, 1931 and subsequent forest legislation. This legislation should be broadened and adequately implemented to do the following things:

1. Provide for adequate forest protection, particularly

2.

from fire.

Provide for adequate management of forest lands, both
public and private.

Adequate Forest Protection

As

Adequate forest protection, particularly from fire, is the most important and effective single step that the public and private owners can take to insure continued productivity of the forest resource. stated under the section on fire depletion, fire is the most destructive agency to the forests of Chile. Its annual toll is 3-1/2 times the solid wood drain and 4 times the sawtimber drain caused by cutting. This enormous loss, slightly more than 1 percent of Chile's total timber stand, must be materially reduced if the resource is to be managed for permanent production.

are

Such reduction is entirely feasible. Almost all forest fires an man-caused, fostered by a traditional policy' of land clearing, public indifference and carelessness, and ignorance of true forest values. The forests, though highly inflammable at times, grow, for the most part, in

expense.

humid regions and in heavy damp stands where, in most seasons, a slow rate of spread is conducive to relatively easy control of fire. A determined and well-administered program of fire prevention and fire control should result in adequate reduction in fire losses at reasonable Fire prevention would require (1) a reasonable and sensible fire law which would prevent indiscriminate and harmful burning but would recognize a legitimate need for fire in waste disposal and land clearing, and perhaps in some cases as a protective measure to prevent conflagrations (2) strict enforcement of the law in the long-time public interest, with appropriate and suitable penalties for infractions, (3) public education as to the desirability and necessity of fire prevention and control.

In Chile, where fire is often a legitimate and necessary tool in the control of brush encroachment, the disposal of logging waste, and clearing of land for other use, complete exclusion of fire would be unreasonable and work an undeserved hardship on farmers and settlers, particularly in frontier regions. The present unrestricted use, however, is unnecessary and unjustifiable from a public standpoint. A good fire law would permit the use of fire as a legitimate tool under proper safeguards as to time and place and restricted to the property on which it is set. Penalties should be severe for spreading fires to other lands, public or private. A permit system, such as is embodied in the present law, is desirable but it would be better to have the permits issued by the agency also responsible for fire control, thus putting authority and responsibility into the same hands. The Governor of the Province, upon the advice of the local Department of Forestry or Forest Service, should have the power of determining the period in which fire may be used. Research will ultimately provide the basis for measuring forest fire danger and regulating the burning season.

It is recommended that strict enforcement of forest fire laws in Chile be the function of the excellent and well distributed national police force acting in close cooperation with the Forest Service. Officials of the Service might be deputized for fire law enforcement to strengthen the effort but primary responsibility should be vested in the police. The responsible head of the police should be required to report formally to the President or other proper official, at least once a year, the number and character of infractions of the fire law and the percentage of convictions. Enforcement of the forest fire law should not be especially difficult under this system if the law is just and equitable and has the support of enlightened public opinion.

Enlightened public opinion, however, will be essential in the long run in attaining any reasonable degree of success in a forest fire prevention program. Many fires start and spread through sheer carelessness and ignorance of the damage which they cause, an understandable phenomenon in isolated frontier regions where the forest values are not fully appreciated and indeed have only recently been recognized, even in part. Accordingly, Accordingly, the Forest Service must undertake a widespread and continued effort to educate the public to the evils of indiscriminate burning and conversely to the true nature of forest values and the importance of the forest resource in national economy. In plantation areas where the money investment and potential market value are widely appreciated, little fire damage now occurs, even without strict law enforcement and with only a primitive fire control organization.

However, a fair and reasonable forest law, strict enforcement, and a fire prevention program are not enough. Fires will continue to By the term "Forest Service", used hereafter in this report, we mean a professional organization dedicated to the management of Chile's forest land in the long-time public interest.

start by accident, carelessness of maliciousness, and from natural causes such as lightning.

Fire control measures are also needed, primarily the establishment of an adequate fire fighting organization manned and equipped to detect fires when small and extinguish them by direct action. Some larger plantation owners have already organized patrol and other detection systems and arranged for standby crews to fight fire on call. A similar organization on an adequate scale should be organized to provide fire protection for all forest lands.

This organization should be part of an enlarged and strengthened Department of Forestry or Forest Service but if finances, lack of trained foresters, or other difficulties delay the organization of such a Service the fire control unit could be formed first and absorbed later in the main organization. This organization must be adequate in size, manpower and equipment to keep the average acreage burned annually small enough to be compatible with continued forest production. Reduction of fire losses to about one-fifth their present size, roughly speaking, should accomplish this objective.

Because of the interlocking character of forest lands, one well operated State system should furnish protection for all on an equable basis and at lowest cost. It would seem best to have fire control organized on a decentralized basis with each regional or provincial unit responsible for the quality and effectiveness of protection in its region and with full authority to act within this region. Each regional unit should have a nucleus of responsible district rangers or wardens paid on a full time basis, responsible in turn for smaller units, supplemented by part-time wardens and per diem guards and stand-by crews of fire fighters paid on an as-work basis. Crews of logging and sawmilling operations should be subject to call in emergencies under cooperative Only a study of the past fire record by regions and additional experience will give the basis for the exact size and character of the organization needed. However, expenditures of 1/2 to 2 pesos per hectare should result in a substantial reduction in the area burned. Expenditures of several to 10 pesos per hectare might ultimately be justified in permanent forest improvements for fire control. Initial expenditures will have to be made, where timber values and other factors justify, in access roads, detection towers, tools, equipment and so on. This might require a program of forest development and construction spread over a considerable number of years with priority given to areas of greatest value and highest fire danger; for it would obviously be unwise and short-sighted to burden the public with the expense of maintaining a fire control organization unless this organization has the facilities needed for proper operation. A record should be kept on the number, occurrence, cause and size of fires as a basis for judging current performance and future need. An annual report of performance should be required.

For the present at least, the State will probably have to bear the financial burden of organizing and operating an adequate prevention, law enforcement and fire fighting organization. On private lands the owners should pay a fair share of the protection costs, perhaps onequarter to one-half. In some cases, on large consolidated blocks of private forest land, it might be more practical for the private owners to organize and operate a forest protection cooperative under the general supervision of the Forest Service. This system might also be used in provinces where public ownership is small or lacking.

In addition to providing protection from fire the State should also furnish adequate protection from destructive forest insects and diseases. Special attention is justified by the large and expanding investment in forest plantations where pure plantations, sometimes covering large areas, are especially susceptible to the rapid spread of any epidemic that might start. Only early detection of threatening epidemics

and prompt and vigorous application of control measures can insure protection at reasonable cost. It is often out of the question for an individual owner or group of owners to take such action. The total investment threatened is large enough to more than justify public expendi

tures.

Accordingly, the State should provide for:

1. Research to provide the necessary knowledge

Occurrence,

life history and methods of controlling forest insects and diseases. 2. A small force responsible for periodic inspection of all forest stands, particularly the plantation area, to provide early detection of threatening insect or disease epidemics.

3. Prompt application of control measures. In order to insure early action the Congress should provide for an emergency fund to finance control operations. To prevent abuse, this fund might be held in trust until a state of emergency" has been declared by the President or his duly delegated representative upon advice of the Chief of the Forest Service or other designated responsible official.

Adequate Management of Forest Lands

Although adequate protection, particularly from fire, will go a long way toward meeting the problem of keeping the forest resource productive, this, alone, will not accomplish the desired objective. Some thing more must be added - good forest management on both public and private lands. At the present time, there is no forest management worthy of the name in the entire natural forest area although the plantations of Chile are under reasonably good, in some cases very intensive, management.

One step that can and should be taken immediately is to place all forest lands now in public ownership in a special category to form, together with existing forest reserves and national parks, the basis for an enlarged, and strengthened forest and park system. Commendable steps have been taken in this direction in recent years but more definite action of wider scope seems justified.

Such action will involve a reversal of Chile's traditional policy of transferring public lands to private ownership as rapidly as possible through outright grant, homesteading, concession, or long time lease. As a result of this policy large areas of forest land have passed into private control. There is no question as to the soundness of this policy in theory, both as means of settling the frontier and as a method of providing for additional farm land for a growing and maldistributed population; there may yet be regions and special circumstances under which its further application is justified. But as far as permanent forest lands are concerned it is suggested that the time is ripe for material modification. This is believed true for the following reasons:

1. In the opinion of competent agriculturists, most of the land suitable for crop production has now been cleared. Chile's agrarian future depends on effective and intensive management of the rich farm land already in cultivation. It seems reasonable assumption, therefore, that most of the sixteen million hectares now in forest should remain in forest and that such minor parts as are and should be cleared will probably be replaced by land reverting to forest through planting or natural seeding after agricultural abandonment.

2. It is also true that the problems involved in private ownership of permanent forest land are usually more difficult than those of other types of land. The forest crop often takes a long time, more than one human generation, to mature. Over this period it is subject to serious injury or destruction by fire, disease or insects, with consequent