Chile: Overview

Chile is a long, narrow country located in the southwestern part of South America that possesses a wide variety of ecosystems, ranging from deserts in the north to temperate rainforests in the south.  Chile's forests are some of the most impressive of the world, ranging from Chilean palm forests and Sclerophyllous forests (composed of tree species adapted to drier climates), in north-central Chile, to prehistoric araucaria forests, temperate rainforests, and alerce forests— the “redwoods of the Andes”—to the South.  Almost every type of temperate forest native to the Southern Hemisphere can be found in Chile.  These forests are of great ecological and conservation value.  They store vast quantities of carbon that contribute to global climate regulation, control flooding, purify water, cycle nutrients and soil, and are home to numerous plant and animal species, many of which can only be found there.  At the local level, native forests are important not only for biodiversity but also as a source of timber, non-timber forest products, and fuel wood for many rural communities.

Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed that these forests will be conserved in the long term.  To maintain their natural levels of biodiversity, large tracts of 'frontier forests' (tracts of mature forests or dense timberline forests of at least 5,000 hectares, which are intact or only slightly altered) must be conserved.  In its latest study, Chile's Frontier Forests: Conserving a Global Treasure, GFW Chile found that of the roughly 30% of forests classified as frontier forests, only a small area (27%) is protected.  Most of these frontier forests are in areas with steep slopes or located at high attitude.  About 7% of protected areas are private, and the government manages the rest within parks, reserves, and as national monuments.

Chile's frontier forests today face several urgent threats, such as illegal logging, conversion to plantations of exotic species, and unsustainable management practices.  Given these facts, current protection plans in Chile are not sufficient to safeguard these valuable forests.  In the state's protected areas system, the SNASPE, forest types are poorly represented, and reserve size in many regions is inadequate.  For example, 84% of these protected areas are concentrated in Regions XI and XII, regions with low human population densities and few forest-related industrial developments.  Aside from these areas, only a small fraction of forest in the rest of the country is protected.

In its study, GFW Chile has found that Regions VI and VII have lost all of their frontier forests and contain mere fragments of undisturbed or minimally altered native (non-plantation) forests, ranging in size from 6.25 to 5,000 hectares.  Of these forests, only 1% is protected in Region VI and only 15% in Region VII.  This points to an urgent need to increase protection of these remnants, as they represent unique areas of original forest that are invaluable for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological processes, while serving as a genetic reservoir for future restoration of these ecosystem types.  We must act quickly— once these areas are gone, they cannot be restored.

In Region VIII, 17,000 hectares of frontier forest remain in a region with the highest level of forestry plantation activities.  With such obvious threats, this region must be closely watched, given that, as in Regions VI and VII, it holds the only remaining examples of forests that once covered the central parts of the country.  Region X has the greatest proportion (43%) of frontier forests relative to its total native forest area.  This region almost exclusively houses the extremely unique and vulnerable coastal mountain range forests.  These forests, which account for 7% of Chile's total frontier forest, are among the most threatened, but are the least represented in the protected areas systems.  Unfortunately, plans for a new government-sponsored coastal highway, which will increase fragmentation of these forests, poses an additional threat.