U.S. retailers see green light

  • 05/12/2003

  • Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong)

High on a ridge above this coastal city stands a forest of ancient araucaria trees, bending in the wind. Native forests like this one, once in constant danger of being razed, now are more likely to remain undisturbed. The world's largest retailer of lumber, Home Depot buys almost 10% of Chile's annual wood exports. Most of the lumber comes from tree farms of nonnative radiata pine and eucalyptus the Chilean lumber industry planted on denuded land, including in places where large swaths of native forest had been clear cut burned down.