Administrative framework

The forest land ownership is dispersed, consisting of many small private areas. An owner has generally between 40 to 50 ha of land in the coastal region, and in the mountainous region the areas are up to 30 hectares. To facilitate forest exploitation in these small properties, the Government has created the modality of "license of tree surplus". It consists of the authorization for cutting 20 trees/ha once a year. Under this system the great majority of cuttings in the native forests are authorized, but which does not echo in the sustainable forest management. Another form of getting authorization for logging is that the exploiters, who find on public land tree species that they want to cut and that would be processed by the national forest industry, may apply for a logging permit, unless the forest concerned is on a protected area or belongs to the State.

Industrial logging permits are granted for forests on private property. According to the area to exploit, the user must show a work or management plan. For areas between 101 and 10 000 ha the logging company must show a management plan, and for areas under 101 ha a working plan must be shown. No new concessions have been granted since the 1960s. There also exist agreements between indigenous communities and logging companies with the objective of managing the communal forests (FAO 1999).

last updated: Thursday, October 28, 2004