ENVIRONMENTAL BASELINE

The environmental baseline describes the area of influence of the project or activity, in

order to subsequently evaluate the impacts that may be generated or presented on the

elements of the environment. The area of influence of the project or activity will be

defined and justified, for each affected element of the environment, taking into

consideration the potential environmental impacts relevant to them. GRN Consultants in

Environment.

The environmental baseline should describe those elements of the environment that are

in the area of influence of the project or activity, and that give rise to the need to submit

an Environmental Impact Study, in consideration of the effects, characteristics or

circumstances referred to in Article 11 of the Law, without prejudice to the provisions

of the following article. The state of the elements of the environment identified as

indicated in the previous paragraph will be characterized, considering the relevant

attributes of the area of influence, its current situation and, if appropriate, its possible

evolution without considering the execution or modification of the project or activity .

This description in the environmental baseline will consider, when appropriate, the

following contents:

Environmental baseline of Geology and Geomorphology

Environmental baseline in which a geological description of the area of a project site is

made, considering relevant aspects such as morphological units and characteristics of

morphogenesis.

Environmental base line of soils

In the environmental baseline of soils, a morphological description of the study area is

made based on the Classification System and Soil Use Capacity established by CIREN-

CORFO. This system classifies the soils according to their origin, topographic position,

slopes, drainage, depth, texture, structure and degree of erosion.

At a global level, the diagnosis of the current status of the soil resource in Region X

shows that the main problems of degradation of the resource are related to biological

degradation and water erosion (CONAMA, 1993). The first, influenced by deforestation

and burning that contribute to a strong reduction of organic matter, the second by

mountainous topography, the intensity of rainfall, the indiscriminate exploitation of the

forest and the qualification of soils suitable for forestry for agriculture and livestock.

Subsequent priorities mention physical degradation or compaction and the expansion of

human settlements. From the perspective of harvesting operations in native forest, no

less important is the removal of soil caused by the transit of machinery and the

construction of roads.

i) Water erosion and wood extraction

According to IREN (1979) the natural ecosystems of the X Region present 21% of their

surface with levels of severe or very severe erosion and another 34% with moderate

erosion. The stability situation coinciding with the levels of light or latent erosion, is

mainly related to the higher level of vegetational cover.

The rate of soil loss is a function of the kinetic energy of water, which depends on the

volume and velocity of the water that drains. Therefore, and especially because of the

rugged topography where the evergreen forest is located, moderately high erosion rates

are expected in the first years after cutting with the consequent greater contribution of

sediments to rivers and lakes, figure 7.1. The erosion will be more intense in the short
cuts and short cut of protection in strips and less in the short of homogeneous

protection. Selective felling by not significantly altering coverage levels does not

increase erosion rates per se, however the influence generated by the extraction routes

and road construction persists. Water erosion, in addition to reducing the volume of soil,

reduces water retention capacity, organic matter and nutrients, reducing fertility and the

activity of the flora and fauna of the soil (CONAMA, 1993).

Using the Universal Loss Equation of the USLE, the loss of soils that would cause a

clear cut, stratified by slope category, was estimated (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978).

Table 7.1 summarizes the estimates based on the texture, structure, permeability and

organic matter of the soil. This also considers the upper limit of the slope range (S), a

rainfall erosivity factor (R) equal to 370 (J / m2 / mm / h), a slope length (L) of 300

meters, a factor of coverage and management (C) including the erosive control practice

subfactor (P), C * P == 0.001. The loss of soil reaches up to 8.9 tons / year / ha for the

year following the short and without burning of waste, value that the second year would

fall to 0.74 ton / year / ha to stabilize in the following years in values close to the

situation under adult forest, this is 0.07 ton / year / ha (Meneses and Gayoso, 1995,

Iroumé et al, 1989). These losses of soil caused by forest activity, although important,

are undoubtedly less than the rates presented by traditional agriculture.

On the other hand, in the case of clear cutting in belts, it should be considered that this

impact occurs only once at least in the expected age of rotation of 60 years or more, this

is an average of 0.15 ton / year / ha additional to the loss rate considered normal.

However, all these values should be considered only as referential, since there is not

enough background to adjust the equation of losses to the area under study.
Without prejudice to the calculated values, the high organic matter content of the soils,

often greater than 20%, would place the soils in the non-erodable category. Even in the

situation of removal of the organic horizon, values lower than those recorded would be

expected.

Environmental base line of flora and vegetation

In the environmental base line of flora and vegetation the vegetation according to

Gajardo is described and the Methodology of the COT Land Occupation Charter is

applied, to obtain a plan of the plant formations, besides describing the floristic richness

of the area of study. On the other hand, the state of conservation of the flora and

vegetation is analyzed according to the Red Book of Terrestrial Flora of Chile.

The harvest of the evergreen forest should be analyzed according to the type of cut.

In situations of short to clear felling both for the habilitation of agricultural land and

substitution for fast growing species, as well as the short protection in strips means the

elimination of 100% of the tree cover, where the impact acquires its maximum

expression. On the other hand, in the selective and short short of homogeneous

protection, even when intense, they have a lesser effect on the vegetation environmental

component.

In the case of protective and selective fellings, the greater or lesser damage that the

harvest process generates on the remaining trees and regeneration, over and above the

component variables, becomes important.

As noted by the botanical specialist in Meneses y Gayoso (1995), the most noticeable

effects caused by the harvesting actions of the evergreen forests on the flora are, on the

one hand, the reduction of the number of native species and, on the other, the increase

of invasive allochthonous weeds. The reduction of native species is a direct

consequence of the harvesting and construction of roads. However, none of the plant

species surveyed in the X Region has conservation problems. On the other hand, by

clearing the land, destroying the tree cover, free land is left that can be invaded by

foreign weeds, which are generally difficult to eradicate.

i) changes in forest composition and damage to remaining

A first measurement in selective cuts of the evergreen forest type, even when it does not

have the rigor of a finished experimental design, shows that the harvest damage in the

remaining trees does not exceed 10 percent (Gayoso, 1995d). This for forest conditions

with slopes of 20 to 35%, scarce intermediate canopy and logging with oxen. There is

no history of damage to established regeneration (1-2 m), although it was practically not

observed.

However, Contreras (1995) comparing pre and post-harvest inventories on twelve plots

of 1500 m2 studies compliance with a homogeneous protection cut in evergreen forests

proposed by the Management Plan, and determines the damage to the remaining stand,

table 7.6. The result shows that an alteration occurs in the composition of the forest,

with a cut concentrated in some species of greater interest and health, although the total

cut is below the authorized in the Management Plan (8% less volume). When observing

the spatial distribution, the homogeneous distribution of the canopy could be verified,

however, the excess coverage must be removed in a successive cut in order to grant the

conditions of openness and luminosity required by the most intolerant species to the

shade.

Defining as light damage the recoverable physical injuries (loss of branches or minor

damage in bark) and serious damage to which it is convenient to eliminate (complete

loss of the crown, loss of bark), it was obtained that 15.6% of the trees with diameter
greater than 10 cm resulted in serious damage and 28.8% had minor damage by turning

and logging

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.fao.org/docrep/V9727S/v9727s0a.htm

http://www.ccbasilea-crestocolmo.org.uy/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ecuador.-L

%C3%ADnea-base-de-COPs-en-aire.pdf

http://www.grn.cl/linea-de-base-ambiental.html