Chile Forum

parryboy wrote:Hi

I have recently come back from the LLanqihue area in the south and was a bit shocked by what appeared to be deforestation of protected trees in a national park. I followed a trail into the forest which led to a clearing where coigue and lenga had clearly been chopped down recently. These were massive and ancient trees. Near to the clearing was what appeared to be a make shift saw mill and you could hear chain saws buzzing in the background somewhere up in the forest. Can anyone explain the law relating to this as it just didnt seem right.

You would need to contact the regional CONAF office with specific information about the location and other details. CONAF provides the rules and the permits. I don't know if the forum will allow me to post the email address for CONAF but here is an attempt. consulta [at] conaf [dot] cl

BTW, lenga and coigue are not normally protected, though alerce is.

From your limited description, the term "deforestation" may not be accurate. That is more commonly used to describe the removal of all trees from a large area, a removal of the forest itself, rather than small-scale cutting.