Civil Society, Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA: Ban on Logging Approved

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) - Pressure exerted by civil society and the creation of a compensation fund were crucial in securing the passage of a national law suspending all logging in native forests in Argentina, until such time as each province has a land use plan defining forest areas to remain untouched, and those that may be developed.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the lower chamber unanimously approved the law on minimum environmental protection standards for native forests, which had been passed by the senate a week earlier, with amendments. It took the bill 18 months to make it through Congress.

Provincial governments will not be able to grant logging permits for one year, and if they delay their land use plan, for which strict guidelines are given in the text of the law, the suspension will be extended.

"This is a huge stride, we have overcome a giant hurdle, and now we have a very good instrument" to protect the forests, Hernán Giardini, coordinator of the forest campaign in Greenpeace Argentina, which spearheaded the lobbying for the law together with some 30 other environmental and social organisations, told IPS.

Native forests in this country covered 127 million hectares a century ago, but now there are only 31 million hectares, mainly because of the uncontrolled expansion of the agricultural frontier. According to satellite images provided by the Secretariat of the Environment and Sustainable Development, 300,000 hectares of forest are being lost every year.

The draft law ran into heavy resistance from lawmakers from northern provinces, such as Salta, Misiones, Chaco and Santiago del Estero, who are in favour of maintaining the right to exploit the forests, even in nature reserves or areas lived in by indigenous peoples who depend on forest resources.

In May 2006, a preliminary draft was submitted by Greenpeace, the Argentine Wildlife Foundation (FVSA) and the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), among other organisations, with the goal of declaring a one-year moratorium on logging.

The land use planning that is to be carried out by provincial governments must decide on three levels of protection: red for forests of high conservation value, which are to remain completely untouched; yellow for forests that could tolerate sustainable management; and green for those that can be altered totally or partially.

The land use plan must be approved by the provincial legislature before the national Secretariat of the Environment lifts the embargo. From that point on, every party interested in exploiting forest resources must present an environmental impact study to the competent authorities.

To these crucial points, which were included in the preliminary draft, other measures were added that were welcomed by environmentalists, such as the requirement to hold public hearings before approving a logging permit, and a ban on open-air burning of waste after deforestation.

The law acknowledges the environmental services provided by forests, including the conservation of biodiversity, soil and water quality, regulation of rainwater flow and fixation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

In order to compensate the provinces for the loss of revenue caused by the ban on deforestation, Congress approved a National Fund for the Enrichment and Conservation of Native Forests, 70 percent of which will go to owners of forested lands, and the rest to provincial conservation programmes.

This fund was key to gaining the support of senators from northern provinces, who were reluctant to pass the law without securing some benefit in exchange. The fund of one billion pesos (330 million dollars) will be financed with two percent of the taxes on soybean exports, and 0.3 percent of the total state budget.

"It’s a minimal contribution for the soybean sector to make in return for the disastrous effects it is having in many provinces," said Greenpeace activist Giardini, referring to the huge expansion of monoculture of transgenic soybeans, Argentina’s star export product.

In Giardini’s view, what ultimately got the draft law approved in Congress was pressure from ordinary people. "We held the usual Greenpeace protests, trying to raise awareness about the problem, but the petition drive surpassed all our expectations," he said.

In mid-2007, Greenpeace launched a campaign to collect one million signatures supporting the forest law, with the backing of other organisations campaigning against deforestation. In two months the target number of signatures had been reached, and in another month and a half, a total of 1.5 million signatures had been collected.

"Teenagers participated to an incredible extent, via the Internet," Giardini said.

Greenpeace has carried out a large number of actions to prevent deforestation in the provinces, with activists immobilising bulldozers with chains, since 2002. After presenting the preliminary draft law in 2006 it held colourful rallies in front of Congress, produced a documentary film and camped out in a biosphere reserve in Salta.

Hanging tents from the trees in the biosphere reserve in September, activists tried to call attention to the accelerating rate of deforestation. "Because there was speculation that the moratorium would become law, Salta increased deforestation five-fold this year. It was utterly shameful," Giardini said.

The response to the signature collection campaign was unprecedented for environmental issues, and it was followed up by urging voters to call lawmakers at their offices. Telephone lines were overwhelmed during the past few weeks, at the peak of the final lobbying effort.

"Younger people have shown an amazing level of awareness, and we should make the most of their participation," Jorge Cappato of the Fundación Proteger, which also took part in the campaign, told IPS.

Giardini said that many blogs (web logs) had added the link to the signature campaign on their own initiative. Some young people, disillusioned with political parties, told the campaigners that "at last, here’s something worth voting for!"