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Timber Guilds Warn of Serious Consequences of Wildfire Bill

Sponsors

The guilds united under Futuro Madera, representing all stakeholders linked to forestry activities, expressed concern over the bill regulating the Prevention of Forest Fires, which is in its final voting stage in the Senate Agriculture Committee. "We regret that the authorities have dismissed the repeated observations raised by timber guilds during its processing, rigidly maintaining an approach based on blaming—and thus imposing burdensome requirements on—small forest and agricultural landowners."

The network comprising the Chilean Biomass Association (AchBiom), the Forest Contractors Association (Acoforag), the Native Forest Owners Association (Aprobosque), the Chilean College of Forest Engineers (Cifag), the Chilean Wood Corporation (Corma), and the Small and Medium-Sized Timber Industries (Pymemad) explained that the legal proposal omits any measures aimed at preventing the occurrence of fires.

Planning Instruments

According to Julio Torres, Executive Secretary of the College of Forest Engineers, imposing new planning instruments on small and medium-sized forest and agricultural landowners, as outlined in the bill, does not solve the problem of fires or the irresponsible use of fire by third parties. "A punitive approach toward those who do not cause fires contradicts a desirable public-private prevention strategy—both for fire occurrence and spread—as advised by international experts and demonstrated by experience in our country."

This approach criminalizes victims, those who suffer from fires, and ignores the actual perpetrators, imposing severe penalties for non-compliance with preventive measures without committing financial support for owners who cannot afford them. Currently, fines for landowners in cases of severe violations exceed 600 million pesos.

Michel Esquerré, president of Pymemad, stated that negative signals are being sent to the forestry sector, particularly its SME segment, discouraging the creation of forest cover in rural areas, which in turn will worsen the supply crisis for timber SMEs. "All this at a time when the forestry sector is being called upon to play a leading role in mitigating greenhouse gases." He also expressed concern that "the impact on the entire production chain of timber SMEs—from affected owners to industrialized wood and bioenergy—is not being considered."

Climate Patrols

Regarding fire occurrence anticipation, "and given that high-temperature climate events will become more frequent in the future, the bill should include preventive climate patrols involving police and Armed Forces, as well as the creation of dedicated prosecutors and better resources for the Public Prosecutor's Office. Given the historically high intentionality, this would allow investigations with greater authority and sufficient evidence to detain and convict those responsible for intentional fires," explained René Muñoz, manager of Acoforag.

Futuro Madera urgently called on senators to carefully assess the severity of the bill's provisions and consider its future impacts on the forestry, agricultural, and rural sectors. "The forestry sector and the country cannot afford laws that, based on flawed or biased diagnoses, criminalize the most vulnerable actors in a sector essential to the national economy," they stated.