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| Report Criticizes MINAE’s Forest Management |
| Friday, 13 June 2008 | |
 (TBT) Comptroller Cites Lack of Organization As Biggest ProblemA truckload of illegally-cut, mostly native hardwood worth up to $30,000, was confiscated by police in a small village near Tamarindo last week. It was the second time within a week that police had moved on illegally-cut timber being transported through the area. “The most recent one was on June 4 in Las Delicias when in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment and Energy, we confiscated 12 pochote trunks and a large block of cedar, as well as 60 pieces of cut wood,” said Captain José Domingo Cruz, Regional Director of the Fuerza Pública in Guanacaste. In the second incident in Guapote, Guanacaste, police confiscated a load of nine pochote roof supports and 30 other lengths of the same timber, being transported by an oxen team. The two random seizures highlight the problem of illegal logging throughout Costa Rica, and come at a time when the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) is coming under scrutiny over forest management. Late last month, a report by the Comptroller General’s Office pointed to weaknesses in MINAE’s forest management policy that center on the contradictory approaches of the government’s National Development strategy and the National Forest Development Plan. The report goes on to cite the lack of any legal framework both to catch offenders and then to punish them, and disorganization by the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), which divides the country into 11 specific areas for protection. SINAC takes the brunt of the criticism, largely because it is empowered by law to protect the country’s forests. “There is a lack of common procedures among the 11 conservation areas to grant wood use permits,” the report says. “And there are difficulties in processing forest management plans given the varied criteria.” Further, the report says there is a lack of basic forest coverage maps that would guarantee better control of illegal cutting. The Comptroller General calls on the State to get the necessary maps and for them to be adopted by all forest management agencies and municipalities.  Photo JFS: SINAC takes the brunt of the criticism, largely because it is empowered by law to protect the country’s forests. “It has been demonstrated that forests harvested for more than 15 years have better conditions to those that do not have such plans,” said Alfonso Barrantes, Executive Director of the National Forest Office. “They are evaluations that show a low impact. “Our position is that the solution is through the conservation of forests with wood harvesting potential by applying a series of norms that establish protection measures for rare species, which may not even be allowed to be harvested.” That said, the annual State of the Nation Report warned this year of the vulnerability of the recovered forested areas, saying only 44 per cent have some degree of protection. Guanacaste is one of the best recovered regions, with about 51 per cent of coverage. Nonetheless only 14 per cent of the area is protected. There remains a scarcity of wood in Costa Rica for construction and furniture-making. The most recent study by the NFO showed in 2005 there was national consumption of about a million cubic meters of timber — 65 per cent of which came from wood plantations. From 1984 to 2004 the annual average consumption was about 775,000 cubic meters. The NFO estimates only about six per cent of timber consumed comes from forests. One of the most outspoken critics of the government’s forest management policies is Quírico Jiménez, a forest engineer and former assemblyman. “After Costa Rica lost its forests, it tried — through the Forest Law of 1996 — to create controlled management plans, which just allowed the extraction of the best woods,” Mr Jiménez said. “It allowed for a selective farming of the forest’s best trees.” Mr Jiménez believes forest management practices are inappropriate because they bring about the loss of the more valuable trees (some up to 200 years old); cause erosion; and contaminate water sources by the trucks that bring out the timber. “From 4000 to 5000 hectares (10,000 to 12,400 acres) are cut each year, especially in the maritime zones along the Pacific coast where the real estate pressure is decimating the forests,” Mr Jiménez said. Maritme zone forests in Guanacaste are not being cut first, he adds, because they don’t exist. They were felled decades ago for pasture and agriculture. Costa Rica’s forest law prohibits the felling of trees in secondary forest, but Mr Jiménez says many get around that by cutting low vegetation among the trees, and effectively converting the forest into “pasture with trees”, which they can then cut. Nelson Marín, Deputy Director of MINAE’s Área de Conservación Tempisque, agrees. “It is very common to see the elimination of the low forest to change its use,” Mr Marín says. “It’s one of the greatest problems along the maritime zone and up to three kilometers inland. “The real problem areas where we just can’t keep up (with the violations) are in Santa Cruz and Carrillo,” Mr Marín adds.  Photo JFS: Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) is coming under scrutiny over forest management “A large truck loaded with an average of 20 tucas or lengths of felled trunks can be worth anywhere from ten to 15 million colones ($19,000 to $29,000),” Mr Marín says. Sebastián Ugalde, Executive Director of the Chamber of Wood Producers, which represents primary and secondary industries, furniture makers and crate manufacturers, says his sector is a $230 million-a-year industry. “Often, SINAC’s management of the productive wood sector has been characterized by operating with a difference of criteria within the different conservation areas,” Mr Ugalde said. His Chamber wants MINAE to justify any bans on trees with numbers and statistics. “The chamber would expect that rigorous studies be made that demonstrate the danger to the resources,” Mr Ugalde said. “There must be technical studies that clearly establish the facts.” Comments (0)
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