Controlled Wood Risk Assessment: Natural Forest in Chile Fsc-Cwra-004-Chi
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CONTROLLED WOOD RISK ASSESSMENT: NATURAL FOREST IN CHILE FSC-CWRA-004-CHI BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE DOCUMENT TITLE Controlled Wood Risk Assessment: natural forest in Chile The 5 categories of controlled wood (FSC STD-40-005; V2-1) SCOPE assessed in Native Forest, between the IV and XII Regions, of Chile, including Los Rios Region, of the country. DOCUMENT CODE FSC-CWRA-004-CHI APPROVATION July 1st, 2010 DATE PARTY FSC-Chile RESPONSABLE APPROVAL ENTITY FSC International Center: Policy and Standars Unit LOCAL APPROVAL FSC-Chile membership ENTITY Board of FSC-Chile Luias Astorga Pablo Huaiquilao WORK GROUP Andrés Venegas Hernán Verscheure Ana Young CONTACT PERSON Ana Rosa Young Downey [email protected] E-MAIL [email protected] ADDRESS Québec 415, Of. 703. Providencia - Santiago. Chile Quebec 415, Oficina 703, Providencia, Santiago Tel.: +56 2 3419913 [email protected] www.fsc-chile.org FSC-CWRA-004-CHI BACKGROUND INFORMATION With the objective that forest certification under FSC Standards achieves its goal of promoting responsible management of forests and, in view of the fact that in the manufacture of certified products it is allowed to include a percentage of non-certified wood, the FSC has proposed to develop a procedure aimed to ensure that the non-certified wood that is used in products with this seal is obtained by means of environmentally and socially responsible practices. Therefore, FSC has created standards for controlling non-certified wood to prevent that the this one comes from the following categories: 1) Illegal wood harvests. 2) Areas where traditional and civil rights are being violated. 3) Forestry practices that degrade high conservation value forest. 4) Native forest substitution processes for other land uses. 5) Forests and/or plantations genetically modified (GMO) According to this, is necessary to identify the different areas or districts of provenance of the non- certified wood and classify them either as Unspecified risk or Low risk, based on the existence or absence of the above mentioned categories (Annex 2 FSC-STD-40-005 v2.1). Therefore, the company that produces and/or purchases wood provenance from unspecified risk areas, should verify if it meets the above requirements. In Chile, the entity in charge of determining the risk level of Chile’s districts or areas is the national initiative of FSC-Chile. This assessment involves a participatory process in which the final result is endorse by different interest groups involved. SCOPE OF APPLICATION OF THE ASSESSMENT This risk assessment has been created in order to be applied in Chile by any company intending to mix FSC-certified wood and non-certified wood. The assessment covers the 5 categories of FSC- controlled wood (FSC-STD 40-005; V2-1) in Native Forest between the IV, XII Regions of Chile and the XIV Region de los Ríos included. It is important to mention that the study covered a greater area, from the IV Region de Coquimbo until the XII Region de Magallanes, having in mind that the original proposal submitted to FSC considered the assessment of controlled woods from the IV to the X Region, including the Region de los Ríos. CONTROLLED WOOD RISK ASSESSMENT: NATURAL FOREST IN CHILE FSC-CWRA-004-CHI www.fsc-chile.org 2 de 26 FSC-CWRA-004-CHI SOURCES OF INFORMATION As indicated in Annex 2 of the FSC-STD-40-005 V2-1 Standard, the controlled wood assessment in Chile included, during the process, a comprehensive review of each suggested source of information for this purpose, being supplemented by official national sources according to the criteria of each category. DISTRICT DEFINITION The FSC-STD-40-005 V2-1 standard, establishes that risk assessments should be carried out in the suitable largest geographic scale and should continue at progressively smaller scales until conditions are sufficiently homogeneous. In more heterogeneous conditions, risk designation would be only possible on a district or local level, or at ecoregions sub-groups levels. FSC Chile’s Board meeting of October 9th, 2007, according to the available information, established that “COMUNA” or “COUNTY” (being the smallest official administrative area in Chilean Territory) meets the requirements of “DISTRICT” defined in the standard with the purpose to determine risk areas. FSC Chile, however, through this study proceeds to review and consult to its members and stakeholders about the definition of the concept of District in Chile, along with its geographic scope. As a result of this study, FSC Chile concluded that, from the operational point of view of carrying out risk assessment, it is favorable to consider “comuna” or “county” as the District , in view of the following: 1. “Comunas” are identifiable geographical units with public and social institutions recognized by its inhabitants, and which these also keep records of social, environmental and economic information, that allows and make possible risk assessment. 2. Operationally, comunas are easy to identify, evaluate and monitor. 3. It is a concept that allows to ensure risk assessment uniformity among national companies. In addition, FSC Chile states that the conditions at a national or regional scale in Chile, are not sufficiently homogeneous in terms of the specific requirements for each FSC Controlled Wood category. Consequently, based on the carried out analysis and, also, considering the available information sources in Chile, it is inadequate to establish a risk analysis at a national or regional scale. According the previously exposed analysis, the Board decided to maintain the decision, in the sense of defining the county as a working scale, although some of the parties considered that risk analysis should be made in a national scale. In the future, nevertheless, it may be possible to use the national scale as a reference unit for some categories. From the operationally point of view, FSC Chile proposes and confirms that District of origin must be interpreted as “COMUNA” or “COUNTY”. RISK DEFINITION FOR EACH CONTROLLED WOOD CATEGORY, ACCORDING TO THE TERMS OF ANNEX 2B OF THE FSC-STD-40-005 STANDARD. CONTROLLED WOOD RISK ASSESSMENT: NATURAL FOREST IN CHILE FSC-CWRA-004-CHI www.fsc-chile.org 3 de 26 FSC-CWRA-004-CHI CATEGORY 1. ILLEGALLY HARVESTED WOOD The district of origin, in relation to illegal harvesting, may be considered as “low risk”, when all the following forest governance indicators are involved : INDICATOR 1.1 Evidence of logging-related laws enforcement in the district. Chile has 13.4 million Ha. of native forest, spread over 11 regions, including the Region Metropolitana. According to their classification, it can be mention that: 44.5% of native forest correspond to Mature Forest, 26.7% to Renoval, 22.4% to Achaparrado Forest, and 6.4% to Renoval Mature Forest. From a short term potential intervention perspective, 4.447.671 ha are relevant, which correspond to Renoval and Renoval Mature Forest structures (CONAF-CONAMA- BIRF, 1999). In native forest areas, the forest types with higher participation are: Siempreverde (30.9%), Lenga (25,3%), Coihue de Magallanes (13,4%) and Roble-Raulí-Coihue (10,9%). Within these forest types the species with a higher abundance are: Coihue, Tepa, Lenga and Roble, which concentrate more than 45% of the exploitable stock (FIA, 2001). In Chile, CONAF (National Forestry Corporation) is the entity in charge of enforcing forest law. It is a public institution of private law which has 40 provincial branches spread across Chile. Yet, despite the enormous efforts made by this institution it lacks human and financial resources in order to have an appropriate coverage. In this sense, the study assess the surface through Management Plans issued by CONAF, as legislation evidence related to exploitation, linked with illegally harvested area of each district (CONAF, 2008-a) The data analysis suggested by Annex 2, B of FSC-STD-40-005 V2-1 standard, proved that it was insufficient for determining Chile’s risk levels and also from each district or, from now on, “comuna”. Therefore, data provided by the national office of CONAF, were necessarily required and were used as the official source. To access the legislation that regulates Native Forest management in Chile , visit: http://www.conaf.cl Risk Thresholds Taking as criterion: the percentage (%) of illegally harvested area over the county’s total area of native forest, it can be classified as: LOW RISK those counties in which: • Less than 25% of the county’s total area correspond to forest area, and those ones without a record of forest law violation. • Non-compliance forest area is less than 5% of the management plan area. CONTROLLED WOOD RISK ASSESSMENT: NATURAL FOREST IN CHILE FSC-CWRA-004-CHI www.fsc-chile.org 4 de 26 FSC-CWRA-004-CHI • No information is available. UNSPECIFIED RISK those counties in which: • The forest area is equal or higher than 25% of the county’s total area, and those ones without a record on forest law violation. • The non-compliance forest area is equal or higher than 5% of the management plan area. • Less than 5% of the county’s total area correspond to forest area, and those ones with, at least, one penalty for forest law violation. Risk Levels The analysis of the available information determined that 42 counties in Chile are considered as UNSPECIFIED RISK , while the rest of the counties (202) can be considered as L OW RISK. INDICATOR 1.2 There is evidence in the district demonstrating the legality of harvests and wood purchases that includes robust and effective systems for granting licenses and harvest permits. In the year 2009, Chile promulgated the Law 20.283 on Native Forest Recovery and Forestry Promotion. It also counts with a complementary legislation such as the Law 19.300, Chilean Law of Environment Bases, and the DL.701 about Forestry Promotion.