Chileans Take On Timber Company.

• Author: LANGMAN, JAMES

Santiago, Chile

The Trillium Corporation of Bellingham, Washington, is trying to gain official approval to cut down trees in the last remaining ancient forests on Tierra del Fuego island--the southernmost tip of South America.

Environmentalists in Chile say that Trillium should not be cutting into the ancient forests on the island at all. They point out that the Chilean forests are extremely rare. Only 3 percent of the world's original temperate forests remain. According to a 1997 study by the World Resources Institute, one-third of these are in Chile. The only other significant temperate rainforests on Earth are the dwindling woodlands of the Pacific Northwest.

"We will not permit conversion of Tierra del Fuego's ancient forests," says Maria Luisa Robleto, director of the forest campaign for Greenpeace Chile. "Who will pay for replacing an ancient forest that has evolved over hundreds, even thousands, of years?"

But Trillium denies that logging will do environmental harm. "This project is sustainable," says Edmundo Fahrenkrog, the general manager of Trillium's Rio Condor project. "We are using the most advanced forestry techniques available to ensure that the forests will regenerate in a way that mimics the natural ecological systems. There has never been a more sustainable plan in all of Chile."

On its 670,000-acre property in Tierra del Fuego, the company plans to cut more than 254,400 acres of forest. But these forests would not be clearcut. The company would log them using adaptive management techniques that could, in theory, sustain and regenerate the...