Despite its wealth in natural resources, Venezuela is going through one of the most dramatic historical junctures, reflected in its financial and political instability and in the growing impoverishment of its population. The process has become particularly obvious since 1982, when a steep devaluation of the currency was unleashed.

Since then, the inequalities in the distribution of the costs and benefits of national development have become very acute. The external debt has also reached unprecedented levels, equivalent to 70 percent of the gross national product. Over the past 20 years, Venezuela has paid over 60 billion dollars servicing the external debt, whose net value has in turn increased during the same time to 39 billion dollars, thus draining 20 to 30 percent of the income received from all exports each year, and becoming as a result one of the most significant obstacles to national development.

The impact of the economic and political instability on the country and its population has been magnified by the erosion of the country's natural resource base. According to the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation, between 1981 and 1990 the average annual deforestation in Venezuela increased to more than double the level registered in the 1970s, reaching an average of 600 thousand hectares a year, the equivalent to 1600 hectares each day during the whole decade.

About 90 per cent of the population lives in the half of the country north of the River Orinoco. About 60 percent of the original forest cover in this half of the country has already been lost. Remaining forests now cover only one fifth of the surface north of the Orinoco, divided into several degraded lots. As a consequence, most of the population must now endure a persistent and growing shortage of water for domestic consumption, the irrigation of agricultural land and the production of electricity. This shortage is aggravated by the deterioration of the water distribution networks.

Other legacies of the pronounced deforestation which has taken place north of the River Orinoco include the irreversible destruction of a valuable and significant part of the country's biological heritage, increases in both the frequency and severity of droughts and floods, and the growing scarcity of a wide variety of products traditionally supplied by forests such as firewood, medicines, food and construction materials.

During the decade of the 80s, Venezuela pumped about 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with a content of about 700 million tons of carbon. In the same decade, emissions of carbon dioxide per capita reached an average of 12 metric tons per year, far higher than other countries at similar stages of development. Approximately half of all CO₂ emissions are due to the consumption of energy, whilst the other half is mainly due to deforestation.

In Venezuela, deforestation is primarily due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier. Almost three-quarters of all forest loss registered during the 1980s can be directly related to the expansion of agriculture. The great majority of the original forests located in the states of Barinas, Apure, Aragua, Carabobo, Cojedes, Miranda, Lara, Falcon, Tachira and Zulia have in the process disappeared. Even areas formally established as permanent forests, such as parts of protected areas, or areas set aside for the production of industrial timber, have been destroyed. Nothing is left of the Turen Forestry Reserve, which originally covered 116,000 hectares. The situation is repeated in the Bolivar State, where 40,000 hectares of tropical rainforest were destroyed within the San Francisco protected forests. Moreover, about 300,000 hectares representing almost all of the original forests to the north of the Orinoco have disappeared, the rich biodiversity lost forever in the process. These forests, corresponing to the Rivers Tokuko, Aricuaiza, Tarra, Guaimaral, Caripe and Guanipa had been specifically reserved and set aside for the permanent production of the industry.

Only small fractions remain of the forest reserves of Ticopotro, Caparo, San Camilo or Rio Tocuyo, where nearly 700,000 hectares have been lost. What remains of these forests shows signs of having been severely degraded, thus reducing their chances of being used in the future. This destruction has taken place in spite of the fact that Article 57 of the Forestry Law establishes that "under no circumstances can forest reserves be used or sold without the express consent of the Venezuelan National Congress".

With the encouragement of political parties and economic interests, the Agrarian Institute and the national association known as the Peasants' Federation are responsible for converting - without the consent of the Congress - the great majority of public land (of forest origin) into agricultural land for private use.

In the state of Barinas, where some of the remaining lowland dense forests of the northern half of the country are located, mercenaries of the land trade and distribute forestry concessions with total impunity. Although located within forest reserves and as such forming part of the national patrimony, these concessions are earmarked for private agricultural use. The invasion of the forestry reserves - a long-term process - is headed by landless peasants who are often encouraged and manipulated into trespassing across the boundaries. Following the successful occupation of the reserve, the most valuable commercial wood is first removed from its forests. After years of occupying the land and using the traditional methods of clearing the area from any remaining trees and burning, the peasant's efforts are rewarded by the Agrarian Institute, which issues the legal titles to him. The chain is finally completed when these legal titles are sold for an derisory sum to the landowner, cattle rancher or politician,the very same people who might very well have incited the invasion of the forest reserve in the first place.

About 20 per cent of the deforestation registered during the 80s is linked - either directly or indirectly - to timber extraction. Although only a few trees are harvested per hectare, up to a third of the biomass is either destroyed or severely damaged during logging. Logging companies are allowed to virtually eliminate the full growing stock over and above the cutting diameter limits, which in turn have been established in arbitrary fashion, using as a basis theoretical projections of the growing rates of the forest. The remaining forest, skimmed of the most valuable species and severely damaged, becomes open ground for its final conversion to agriculture.

At this stage, and from the outside, this conversion process seems particularly competitive and convenient, especially in the light of the delicate dependency of the country on imported food and the explosive combination of both a high concentration of land ownership in a few hands with rampant poverty, as well as the excessive pressure of the foreign debt on the limited economic resources available. Timber extraction has thus become the first phase of a process which does eventually lead to the clearing of the forest.

Traditionally, logging concentrates on the extraction of a handful of highly valuable species, in what ironically may often be considered a rescue operation taking place prior to the clearing of the forest. This is indirectly but firmly encouraged by the government, through the application of insignificant stumpage prices. In spite of consecutive increases in the stumpage value during 1993-1994 the fact remains that there is a formidable discrepancy between what the government gets and the commercial value of the timber. This is clearly illustrated by the fact that only between one and one and a half dollars are paid per cubic metre of extracted logs, whilst their commercial value in the internal market would be between 140 and 260 dollars per cubic metre. An almighty obstacle is the fact that the most valuable timber produces significantly higher profits, which in itself becomes a reason for not extracting lesser-known species nor making an effort to open up new markets for them.

During many years and up until 1982, the tax paid for logging was ten times higher than those. This happened because the legislation in this matter established that taxes should be paid in local currency. Subsequent devaluation of the bolivar has led to lower tax, in 1992 reaching less than half a dollar per cubic metre. Thus at present the royalty received by Venezuela is 47 times less than that received by countries such as the U.S.A., Finland or Sweden.

The new scene for deforestation in Venezuela is now the Bolivar State, located in the region known in Venezuela as "Guayana", a natural extension of the Amazon. The state of Bolivar is 24 million hectares in size. Over 70 per cent of its surface is covered by natural tropical forests. In this state, since 1987 almost three million hectares of natural and pristine forests have been leased to timber concessions.

The new national development plan (1996-1999) prepared by the Bureau for Planning and Co-ordination (CORDIPLAN) identifies the forestry sector as a factor of paramount importance for the development of the country. As a result of this policy, it is expected that timber concessions would be catapulted from three and half million to almost 12 million hectares. Taking into account only the restricted view that the forests of the Bolivar state are known for their richness in commercial timber, CORDIPLAN proposes that all new concessions would have to be located in this state, without giving any consideration to the wealth of biodiversity of the region and its renowned ecological fragility.

To make matters worse, the threat associated with timber extraction is complemented by the devastating impact of uncontrolled alluvial gold mining in the same areas.

With the complicity of national and local authorities, the natural resources of the country are being plundered and destroyed for short-term benefits. The Agrarian Reform, often used as an excuse to cover up this destruction, is nothing more than the facade behind which is hidden the devastation of the national forest heritage. Today, in spite of 30 years of agrarian reform, Venezuela is one of the countries in Latin America with the highest concentrations of land owned by just a handful of privileged people.

The deforestation of Venezuela has become a threat to the ecological stability of the country, becoming in many ways a crime committed against the well-being of future generations. The authorities in charge are responsible of this deforestation, as they have received from the nation a mandate to protect and administer the wealth of resources with which the country has been endowed. It is now down to ordinary citizens to halt and reverse this process of destruction in the national interest.