SOUTHERN CONE NATIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION


(Project 9L0719)

W


WF is working in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay to conserve what remains of forest ecosystems. In these four countries in the sub-tropical and temperate southern cone, WWF's initiative involves protection of native forest types, supporting a private wildlife refuge network in the forests of Argentina, research, education, and ensuring increased enforcement of laws restricting timber extraction.

In Chile, WWF has been instrumental in raising awareness about the need to conserve forests. Socio-economic surveys of native forest land-owners have been carried out, and demonstration plots established to promote sustainable forest management. One such forest management network REMFO monitors forest destruction.

Trade in alerce wood has been monitored and analysed. Efforts to strengthen the arm of the law include training and development of tree-ring techniques for dating illegal cutting of alerce and other local species.

Meanwhile, WWF is also working with Grupo de Investigaciones Agrarias (GIA) to study the impact of a Chilean government scheme to promote non-native pine plantations. Since the scheme was launched 15 years ago, Chile has become a major producer of forest products which generate high foreign exchange earnings. In the process, thousands of hectares of biologically diverse native forests have been destroyed and replaced by single-species plantations. The WWF/GIA study comes at a time when Chile is contemplating renewal of the scheme, and when other Latin American countries could follow the Chilean route to enhanced export earnings.

In Argentina, WWF's Associate, Fundación Vida Silvestre ( FVSA), the country's largest conservation organization, is working to establish private protected areas in priority biogeographic regions. Much of Argentina's land is privately owned, and therefore prohibitively expensive to acquire.

FVSA promotes private reserves in these areas, providing landowners with the required technical know-how. So far, 17 such reserves have been created. Priority ecosystems in this private wildlife refuge system include the Atlantic rainforest (Misiones region); the Bolivian Tucumano forest; and the Argentine Chaco.




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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature