US company targets Chile's rainforest

US company targets Chile's rainforest

A US development company Washington has made bids on 750,000 acres (300,000 hectares in the heart of southern Chile's old-growth-forested fjords.

Horton-Davis Enterprises, a relatively small company, has said it plans a multifaceted development, including logging, mining, fisheries and tourist facilities.

Although investigations by Ancient Forests International revealed that Horton-Davis does not have the resources to finance such an ambitious operation, the company has made serious bids to private landholders for many of the same areas proposed for a "world park" by AFI.

The group recently completed its third annual international expedition to explore the region's temperate rainforests, which include the southern hemisphere's oldest trees, the alerce cedar. The sequoia-like giants, severely logged, now are found only in remote, inaccessible valleys.
[Abridged from the US publication Econews.]

From GLW issue 8