Ecobreves – CHILE: New Law for Native Forests

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Apr 29 2006 (IPS) - The government of President Michelle Bachelet has taken up a proposal from environmental organizations for a law on native forests that frees up a legislative measure, paralyzed for the past 13 years, of a framework law for protecting Chile's rich autochthonous forest resources .

Flavia Liberona, coordinator of the Native Forest Network, applauded the new law, adopted Apr. 19 following meetings between government authorities and environmentalists.

“The new officials (Bachelet's administration took office in March) fortunately understood that the previous bill was not viable. These changes send a political signal of greater openness than what we saw in the previous government” of president Ricardo Lagos, Liberona told Tierramérica in an interview.

The immediate objective will be to regulate the promotion of forestry plantations and recovery of native forests, postponing the debate on substituion of autochthonous forests, which pitted environmental groups against logging interests