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A Lost Year for Wood SMEs

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• According to the Red Futuro Madera, 2023 ends with a very negative balance for the Chilean forestry sector, especially for small forest owners and wood SMEs.

At the beginning of the year, we experienced devastating wildfires, many of them intentional, which resulted in 26 deaths, 2,406 destroyed homes, and ravaged over 400,000 hectares of vegetation between the Metropolitan and Los Ríos regions (CONAF, 2023). Of this area, more than 50,000 hectares correspond to productive pine and eucalyptus plantations owned by small landowners.

This situation occurred in an especially complex economic scenario both in Chile and abroad, with high interest rates, a sharp drop in demand, a slowdown in construction, and the consequent decline in material prices. This led dozens of sawmills and wood manufacturing industries to halt operations or go bankrupt entirely, resulting in the layoffs of hundreds of forestry workers from Maule to Los Lagos.

Amid this bleak scenario, forestry SMEs expected empathy, a sense of urgency, and responsibility from the government—but that did not happen. On the contrary, the Executive Branch missed the opportunity with three bills that could have provided significant support for the sector. Instead, there has been a disjointed effort, marked by ideological hostility toward the forestry sector and a lack of urgency in addressing the needs of small and medium-sized landowners, wasting an entire year to tackle the critical situation of forestry SMEs. An example is the wildfire bill introduced in Congress in October, which omits fire prevention and combating intentionality, confuses victims with perpetrators, and penalizes small forest owners who have lost productive land as if they were responsible for intentional fires.

Throughout 2023, the government convened various working groups, but progress was frustratingly slow, lacking executive drive, with unilateral dynamics and rhetorical messages acknowledging the importance of the sector and wood—yet without real alignment in their decisions. This inaction could lead to various consequences, such as the loss of businesses and jobs in many forestry communities across central and southern Chile, the degradation of fire-affected soils, failure to meet international emission reduction commitments by 2030, as well as carbon neutrality by 2050. It will also leave this government's legacy as one of increased economic concentration in the sector.

The demand for sustainably produced goods from native and planted forests—such as sawn timber, panels, paper, and bioenergy—is and will continue to be a necessity for Chile and the world. Yet, our country is dramatically missing this opportunity. Therefore, we hope that in 2024, the Chilean government will listen more, act urgently, and without bias toward relevant support mechanisms that meet users' needs, allowing us to replant and make our country a global example of a sustainable bioeconomy, where small and medium-sized wood producers are valued and supported.

Red Futuro Madera