Futuro Madera Network Calls for Dialogue and Technical Evaluation in Defining Priority Sites for Conservation
The forestry sector associations, grouped under the Futuro Madera network, express our concern regarding the process of defining priority sites for conservation promoted by the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP), currently under public consultation.
As representatives of a productive sector with extensive territorial presence, we fully share the goal of protecting biodiversity and strengthening the country's environmental institutions. However, we believe this process requires higher-quality dialogue, with more information and coordination among various productive stakeholders and communities that could be affected by the new zoning.
There is no room for error today. The forestry sector is experiencing an especially critical moment: it frequently faces incidents of violence and insecurity, confronts a sustained decline in productive capacity, loss of planted area following wildfires, a serious shortage of raw material supply, a native forest recovery law that has performed poorly, and the imposition of tariffs on domestic timber that further worsen its competitiveness. All this occurs against a backdrop of absent reactivating public policies, which have left small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector in a highly vulnerable situation.
Therefore, we request the Ministry of Environment to extend the public consultation period to ensure this process incorporates transparent technical and socioeconomic assessments, and to open a collaborative space with experts, forestry professionals, and landowners to develop balanced solutions.
Protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable development are objectives that must advance together, through dialogue, evidence, and a sense of national purpose.
Futuro Madera Network is composed of Acoforag, Corma, Chilean College of Forest Engineers, Pymemad, Achbiom, and Aprobosque
