Status: 02/10/2023 06:27 a.m
Chile regularly struggles with forest fires, but this year they are particularly big. This is not only due to heat waves – it is also the result of a wrong decision made many years ago.
Things had to be done quickly on February 5, when Neftali Nahuelqueo went into the forest with neighbors to fight the fierce fires. With tools, water canisters and food, he wanted to prevent a catastrophe in the southern Chilean community of Tirúa.
Many neighboring houses had already been destroyed and the flames were getting closer to Nahuelqueo’s house. There is a sense of faintness in his voice when he reports on the operation: “We dug fire breaks one meter long and poured water on them so that the fire only got as far as that.”
The fact that Chile is currently experiencing an exceptionally strong and deadly forest fire season comes as no surprise to the Nahuelqueo councillor: “In our region there is almost no traditional forestry anymore. But there are many pine and eucalyptus forests. They are, so to speak, fire accelerators.”
An area larger than Saarland destroyed
Figures from the Chilean disaster service show that more than 300,000 hectares of forest have burned in a short time – a slightly larger area than Saarland. 1180 households were completely destroyed and 24 people died.
The causes of the fires, which recur every summer with varying intensity, have long been discussed in Chile.
Firefighters and local residents fight the forest fires with the simplest of means, but they are often unable to cope with the combination of heat, wind and dry wood.
Image: EPA
Fire accelerator eucalyptus
The reason for this is primarily heat waves, which cause extreme temperatures in Chile. If a fire then breaks out, the prevailing monocultures act like fire accelerators, explains Andrés Meza. He calls the situation “critical” – the catastrophe has proven that once again.
The forest engineer is a member of the “Agrupación de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque Nativo”, a non-governmental organization that works for the local forest. From his point of view, the eucalyptus tree, which comes from Australia, accelerates the fires because it contains a lot of oils and is considered to be downright explosive.
Eucalyptus was introduced to Chile more than a hundred years ago. Today, this tree species dominates Chilean forestry in the fire region. It is planted on an industrial scale on huge plantations. According to Meza, eucalyptus holds less moisture than the mixed native forest.
Large monocultures of pine and eucalyptus trees – this also favors the rapid spread of forest fires in Chile.
Image: REUTERS
Fast-growing wood – also for Germany
The eucalyptus monocultures have so far been important for the Chilean economy. In central and southern Chile, many areas have been converted into tree plantations in recent decades.
As part of Chile’s neoliberal economic model, dictator Augusto Pinochet passed Decree 701 in 1974, a year after the brutal military coup. As a result, fast-growing plantations of California Monterey pine and eucalyptus were subsidized by the state. The decree was implemented by Julio Ponce Lerou, head of the Economic Development Agency and the dictator’s son-in-law.
Two groups in particular benefited from this: CMPC and Arauco. They have dominated the market ever since.
The forest industry employs more than 110,000 workers and exported goods worth just over US$ 6 billion in 2022, including to Germany. According to the German paper industry, around five percent of its pulp imports come from Chile.
“We have no more time.”
Forest engineer Meza knows the importance of wood and pulp exports. He states: “It is not easy at all to change an industrial forest model that was established more than 50 years ago and to come to a sustainable land management.”
Nevertheless, time is of the essence: Chile has recorded steadily rising temperatures and increasing drought in recent years. It is currently 37 degrees in the forest fire regions.
Meza sees national politics as having a duty not to leave the planning of forest areas to the market alone and to establish a sustainable timber economy that is less susceptible to fire.
Hoping for a new constitution
Lasting changes could only come as part of the Chilean constitutional process. A political body is to draw up a new basic law this year, which will replace the current constitution, which dates from the time of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Environmentalists will demand higher environmental standards for forestry and priority for native tree species.
Native forests, forest engineer Meza says, are “more diverse and retain more moisture than eucalyptus plantations, even under adverse conditions.” Therefore, they are less susceptible to the uncontrolled spread of forest fires.
Also in countries in Europe – for example in Portugal – eucalyptus plantations are part of the economic model, even if this increases the likelihood of forest fires. Diverting Chile would also be a sign to forestry and politics in Europe.
In Chile, it is primarily local residents who have to put out the fires, treat the injured and rebuild houses. Like Neftali Nahuelqueo, who wants to fight the fires on his own in the coming days and is putting himself in danger.