Prince Albert Model Forest and Saskatchewan Energy and Resources
Curacautin, Chile & sacred Auracaria trees of the Mapuche people.Prince Albert Model Forest and Saskatchewan Energy and Resources

By Larry Stanley, RPF
As the aircraft winds its way between mountain peaks towards Santiago’s International Airport, I am immediately struck by the similarity of landscape to that of Kelowna and Kamloops in British Columbia. It’s March 22nd and the first day of fall after a long dry summer in Chile. The pilot announces the temperature as +27 degrees Celcius, and for one split second, I remember the -27 degree Celcius temperature in Saskatchewan I left only 24 hours previously. But, once you leave the airport and head into historic Santiago Centro and the new, trendy Las Condes, you realize there is a vibrancy and sense of purpose about Chile and its people that belies the old images of military rule and poverty.Guided by the elected Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and her Socialist Party, there is an urgency of purpose amongst the people and commerce of the country. This urgency has been backed by major changes in legislation aimed at reforming education, the economy and resource sustainability. The country has embarked upon a program to strengthen and expand international trade relations. It’s a program to which Canada is a major subscriber through recently signed memoranda of understanding between Prime Minister Harper and President Bachelet to expand upon the original 2007 Canada-Chile Partnership Framework. The two countries are already expanding relations in the areas of science and technology, scholarships and youth mobility, as well as investment and mining.

In the spirit of this rapidly growing Canada - Chile trade and cooperation relationship, the Prince Albert Model Forest Association (PAMF) and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources have just completed a two week science and technology exchange and fact finding mission with the Chilean Bosque Modelo Araucarias del Alto Malleco (BMAAM), the Corporación Nacional Forestal (Conaf) – Chile’s National Forest Corporation in the Agriculture Ministry, the Mapuche indigenous people of Central and Southern Chile, and a number of non-profit and commercial forestry operations.

Intended as an expansion of the PAMF growing international relations program that already involves Sweden, Russia and other circumboreal countries, the Chile mission was the first formal collaboration of the PAMF in the southern hemisphere. Under the PAMF – BMAAM signed Agreement of Cooperation, and with the assistance of the International Model Forest Network (IMFN), the Canadian and Chilean embassies and the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), the PAMF and Saskatchewan Energy and Resources were able to undertake expanded discussions and observations in the areas of governance, value-added forest production, indigenous involvement in the forest sector, Chilean bioenergy developments, sustainable plantation forestry and the new Chilean Native Forest Law (Ley de recuperacion del bosque native y fomento forestal). The Native Forest Law is aimed at developing environmentally sustainable native forest resources in balance with the social and economic progress of rural communities.

During the two week mission, a number of information exchange arrangements were made. A formal request was finalized for a CATIE Master’s student, Leonardo Durán, undertaking a comparative analysis of model forest governance structures in Chile, Costa Rica and Saskatchewan to come to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in April in order to complete his analysis. This is one study of a triad of post-graduate thesis connected to the PAMF, and looking at model forest governance structures and international information management and exchange models.

As well, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources has been asked to prepare a compendium of contacts and information on participants in the provinces bioenergy industry. Chile uses raw wood for approximately 90% of its domestic heating and is interested in collaborating in the development of a pelletizing, briquetting and char industry in Chile to offset significant urban air quality and Greenhouse Gas emissions issues. Both Saskatchewan and Chile’s forest industries have suffered from the global recession and loss of United States wood product markets. Saskatchewan is now in the initial stages of expanding its own wood-based bioenergy industry as a transformation opportunity within its forest sector, and therefore sees significant opportunities for bioenergy science and technology trade in the bioenergy field.

Both the PAMF and Saskatchewan Energy and Resources will be able to benefit from exchanges of ideas and methodologies involving small and medium sized value-added processing companies in the forest sector. Differing wood characteristics and species limit competition between Saskatchewan and Chile in the same global market niches, yet this limited overlap of market niches provides excellent opportunities for innovation and development of similar engineered and value-added wood product technologies. As an example, both jurisdictions are engaged in increasing affordable, efficient housing for indigenous families. Collaboration between Saskatchewan’s First Nations RTM housing companies, and the Mapuche forest products companies in Chile could net significant gains to both jurisdictions.

The speed and direction that future collaboration will take is yet to unfold. However, given the willingness of both Chile and Saskatchewan to explore those directions, the opportunities are varied and appear poised to provide for very interesting future opportunities.