Forestry in Chile

Forestry is one of the main economic sectors of Chile, representing 14% of the value of the country's total exports.

[2] In 2006 70% of Chile's forestry production went to export, and the industry employed more than 150,000 workers.

[2] The wave of forest plantations that begun in the 1970s was initially a response to severe soil erosion that affected much of the country.

[4] In the area of Cañete and Tirúa forestry companies have been accused of contributing to the displacement of indigenous Mapuche communities.

[5] In the last decades the communities of Temucuicui have had a conflict, at times physically violent, with the forestry company Forestal Mininco, leading to the detention and imprisonment of community members in the prisons of Angol and Cañete.