Government Against the Forestry Industry: Don't Clarify, It Only Darkens

El Líbero, February 18, 2023

Targeting the legal business of forestry companies will only strengthen those engaged in the illegal exploitation of this sector. Each year, around $75 billion worth of stolen wood circulates, equivalent to about 50,000 trucks. The problem is not the companies; it is the lack of institutional capacity.

From wildfires, we move to the forestry industry. The necessary conversation: the government’s back-and-forth. It all started when the President stated that a longer conversation with this industrial sector was needed, followed by the royalty proposal, which was quickly disavowed by the Minister of the Interior. However, beyond the lack of coordination behind these changes of opinion, there is concern over the absence of a clear narrative for a region and a productive sector that faces organized violent groups and logging mafias attacking their lands on a daily basis.

The inconsistency in the message further weakens the State; in fact, the consequences are already becoming evident. CMPC has reported a network of arson attacks on its properties and brigadiers, two firefighters were stabbed, and attacks in La Araucanía continue unabated. The problem is not the companies; it is the lack of institutional capacity to address a multidimensional issue that impacts the security of Chileans living in that area of the country.

Targeting the legal business of forestry companies will only strengthen those engaged in the illegal exploitation of this sector. Each year, around $75 billion worth of stolen wood circulates, equivalent to about 50,000 trucks, raw material that is sold primarily in the national market and obtained through the use of violence and the crime of land usurpation to illegally exploit properties. This occurs without considering any environmental regulations, community protections, or labor laws.

In this context, the change in narrative does not help; rather, it serves all the increasingly organized criminal groups that take advantage of institutional weaknesses and the regression of the rule of law. There is no greater indication of a fragile State than when its leaders cannot reach an agreement!

To exercise the power obtained through electoral victory, the President and his ministers must construct a narrative for all Chileans, for those who voted for them and those who did not; only then can they generate governability. Confronting a productive sector amid an emergency due to wildfires and violence caused by crime is not the way forward. Rather, the path to take is one where public and private efforts are coordinated to restore peace in a region battered by disasters and crime. However, they must never forget that the responsibility for that peace lies with the State; the private sector is just one actor in the strategy that the Executive must articulate.

This year marks a decade since the murder of the Luchsinger-Mackay couple, a milestone that marks a before and after regarding organized violence that today combines with a rising criminal economy. They are the ones to combat; how? With legislation, effective penalties, and a clear strategy. For that, the message should be a single one: crime and delinquency have no place in the country. The problem is that we do not know if a government that authorizes and disavows its ministers is capable of constructing the narrative we need.

Pilar Lizana
Researcher, AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero