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Sernafor Must Issue Binding Reports When Declaring an Area as Degraded and Threatened

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The report from the Joint Committee tasked with resolving discrepancies among lawmakers regarding the bill creating the National Forestry Service (Sernafor) is being submitted to the Chamber of Deputies. This follows an agreement reached by its members in the previous session.

It should be noted that the new institution will have a decentralized nature, legal personality, and its own assets, and will be under the oversight of the President of the Republic through the Ministry of Agriculture. In practice, it will be the successor to the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf).

Sernafor will be responsible for the protection, promotion, conservation, preservation, recovery, restoration, and sustainable management and regulation of forests and other vegetation formations in the country, as well as associated natural components. It will also focus on developing new forests and other formations on lands with primarily forestry potential.

JOINT COMMITTEE

In the Joint Committee, senators and deputies agreed to maintain the Senate's wording, ensuring that the new service has the authority to issue prior and binding reports when declaring an area as degraded, identifying a threatened ecosystem, and establishing ecological restoration management plans, among other conservation-related functions.

In the Chamber of Deputies, this point was rejected, and in this third legislative stage, the Executive proposed assigning such oversight to the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP).

During the March 25 session, Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela and acting Environment Minister Maximiliano Proaño detailed a new alternative to Article 4, paragraph g):

"The Service shall be responsible for: issuing prior reports for the declaration of degraded areas and binding reports for the development of management plans to preserve threatened ecosystems when these responsibilities fall within the Service's jurisdiction."

This wording was rejected with 7 votes against and 2 in favor, while the Senate's version, which states:

"The Service shall be responsible for: issuing prior reports for the declaration of degraded areas, as well as for the declaration of management areas for the conservation of threatened ecosystems and ecological restoration, when these responsibilities fall within the Service's jurisdiction, and such reports shall be binding."

If this wording is approved in both Chambers, the bill will be ready for enactment into law, explicitly stating that with a favorable report from Sernafor, a piece of land can be declared degraded. This is justified by the fact that Conaf has the technical expertise to evaluate soils, making its opinion decisive in decision-making.

ARGUMENTS

When explaining their votes, Senator Carmen Gloria Aravena expressed concern that "the Executive's proposal could turn the Ministry of the Environment into a supra-service," while Senator José Miguel Durana commented, "I disagree with the Service being governed by the SBAP (...) moreover, it seems the expertise of Conaf workers was not considered."

Similarly, Senator Alejandra Sepúlveda pointed out that "the regulations of this law will need to be very thorough. When defining an area as degraded, the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, and Economy will be involved, and I believe authority should be given to the entity with real expertise."

Meanwhile, Senators Gastón Saavedra and Rafael Prohens agreed that "the discussions from the previous session should have been upheld, which essentially supported the Senate's wording."