Their attitude is equivalent to treating a forest like a mine, which is abandoned when the vein is exhausted. But company executives said the report was based on inaccurate information. A study last year from Chile's Central Bank said that if current destruction continues there could be virtually no mature native forest left in Chile within 30 years, apart from that protected in national parks. Most seriously affected has been the central Sixth Region where between 40 and 60 percent of native forest has been cleared since 1984, it said. Felling has soared in the last 10 years as firms clear woods for replanting with fast-growing pine and eucalyptus, both imported species.
Native lumber is made into wood chips with most exports going to Japan's voracious paper industry.
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