Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

déveloped from the point of view of its direct use forhuman nutrition and its industrial use. The poor development of fishing as a source of human food is the result of bad marketing and the lack of cuisine prepared with sea fooCis. Thus, at the right moment, an integral program on fishing must be drafted, and the eating of fish must be promoted. This will be a long process. Nevertheless, some aspects of the program can show results with relative speed if certain types of industrial fishing are promoted, among which the following should be stressed: i) oyster farming -en export activity that might reach an important volume; ii) artificial breeding of selected species, such as trout; iii) usual species in game fishing. However. of all the fishing programs that might be developed, the most important is catching and processing krill. Krill is a shrimp that is the basic food of whales in the antarctic regíon. Due to the decline of the whale population, there is nowan extraordinary abundance of krill, which has been conservativeiy estimated at 300-400 million tons. This provides the basis for an annual catch of at least 50 million tons, without endangering the survival of the species. Krill is caught by Russian and Japanese ships whose home ports are thousands. of kilometers away. It is made ¡nto fish meal or into pastes with different flavors for human consumption. Productivity is approximately 1 to 6 in 1he conversion of krlll into fish mea!. The southern tip of Chile provides adequate conditions for establishing fishing bases that would be almost one day's sail from the krill-fishing areas. The World Bank has been asked to grant a loan for research on krill. In any case. it would be possible to consider the convenience of joining with Japanese capital and technolot¡y or with countries that are currently exploiting krill. For the time being, the investment requirements for industrial plants, ships. and other necessary facilities cannot be indicated. However, we can state in advance that probably no more than six years would be necessary to have the krill industry in full operation. For the purposes of th is plan, a conserVative estimate suggests that by 1980, approxi– mately 200,000 tons per year of fish meal would be' ¡;Jroduced. Production would tend to grow at arate of more than 100,000 tons per year after 1980. Th is represents an estimated income of $ 40 million. If an increase in ineome of about $15 million is considered forthespeciestraditionally exported by Chile (anchovy paste, shrimp, and crawfish) and for other lines that might be developed, by 1980 fishing exports would inerease by $ 55 million, and there would be considerable potential tor growth. IV. FORESTS Chile possesses two great types of forest resources; natural forests and artificial plantations. Of the 74 million hectares of continental land in Chile, 20-30 million heetares are suitable for forestry. Natural forests are roughly elassifies as follows: 15 million hectares natural, noncommercial forests 6 million hectares natural forests 4.6 million reforested hectares. The balance of 10 million hectares are :deforestedlands fhat have not been replanted. Almost 90 pereent of the plantations raise pines, and the rest raise euealyptus and poplars. . The total area of planted pine forests extends from Valparaíso to Valdivia, and 70 percent is concentrated in the Bío-Bío area. Classified according to age, the distribution is as follows: 239