ARGENTINA: AGRIBUSINESS VS. FORESTS

ARGENTINA: MASSIVE DEFORESTATION – MIGRATON OF CAMPESINOS

Lands of the Department of San Martín, Prov. of Salta, supposedly protected by a court decision come up to deforestation audience. Some businessmen induced beef farming creol and Wichi communities to sign agreements, thus opening the land for deforestation audiences.

Image: pobrezambiente.typad.com

DEATH SENTENCE FOR THE NATIVE FORESTS IN ARGENTINA (from an article in EcoticiasArgentina, Ecoticias [newsletter@ecoticias.com]; Jan.26, 2014) 

Ten thousand hectares of native forest where campesinos and Wichi native communities live and work are about to be razed to be destined to agribusiness. They are fields of the San Martín Department, Prov. of Salta, an area catalogued by the province as territory to be preserved. They had been protected by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice in 2008.

“The pressure from agribusiness is worth more than the Forestry Law and the human rights” denounced Red Agroforestal Chaco Argentina (Redaf) adding that campesinos and native people were pushed to allow the advance of agribusiness.  Since the sanction of the Forestry Law (that establishes protection of the native forests) in Salta province 36,000 hectartes were razed, averaging an area equivalent to 164 football fields per day.

To execute a good part of the deforestation, the gray areas of the law are resorted to. “Not all deforestations are ilegal, because the province proceeds in many cases to recategorize the lots originally categorized red or yellow (protected areas) to green, proceeding to aprove the deforestations” explained Ana Álvarez, executive secretary of Red Agroforestal, a collective of organizations and researchers of the Argentina’s North East and North West regions.

The land in danger is called Finca Cuchuy and the request for authorization for deforestation was made by businessmen Alejandro Braun Peña (8962 hectares) and Gastón Larrán (1300 hectares).

The campesino and Wichi families did not had the benefit of legal advice about their rights, and they signed in favor of the businessmen in exchange for  ten houses for the Wichi community and 300 hectares for the families that always lived and worked in the 10,000 hectares. The four campesino families that have been living in the place for over 50 years signed the “agreement” requested by the businessmen. In two of the cases they signed with their fingerprints since they are iliterate. The concession establishes that the businessmen will give five hectares to each (20 hectares in total). Campesinos will have as main occupation livestock raising. The study of social impact presented in the audience for aproval of the deforestation states that the campesinos own 578 livestock heads. But with the 20 hectares that they signed they will not be able to raise more than three heads of beef. “This supposed concession of rights implies not only the loss of 10,000 hectares of forest, but it will condemn  the originary and creol families to migrate, since they cannot sustain themselves in the small lots to which they were confined”, warned Red Agroforestal.

The provincial decree 2789 prohibited deforestation in regions where the survey of indigenous territories were not performed, as it is established by the National Forestry Law 26,160. The territorial survey was not done in the Wichi community Cuchuy; in spite of this the province carried on the audience for the approval of the deforestation.

Finca Cuchuy is not an isolated case, explained Álvarez, since there are at least other five deforestation audiences planned just for January, and they will affect other 22,000 hectares.

Original source: http://www.nodal.am

Original article (in Spanish): http://www.ecoticiasargentina.com/noticia/sentencia-de-muerte-para-el-monte-nativo-en-argentina_1288

Comment by he Blog’s Editor:

Obviously, the tricks to bypass the Forestry Law and the “negotiations” to turn the native lands to agribusiness are nothing more than other examples of the lack of respect for their inhabitants and the environment.   Leaving aside that fortunately at least in this specific case the native residents were not run away at gunpoint as it has been unfortunately happening in other parts of the country and Latin America, it is important to try to evaluate the questionable case with objectivity.

To start with, it seems that in the news there is some degree of math inaccuracy. If “negotiacions” were carried on with four campesinos and 300 hectares were obtained by them in exchange, it does not seem correct that to each of the four farmers 5 hectares of land (20 has. Total) were granted. It can be supposed that the other 280 hectares were granted to the ten families for which ten houses were built; that is, 28 hectares to each. Obviously neither 5 nor 28 heactares will allow them to continue raising the 578 bovines.

Besides, it would be good to know what kind of forest were in the “negotiated” land. Why was it first characterized  red or yellow, and later recategorized green, therefore deforestable. It could be that the natural forest was some kind of brush with low forestry value.  If the land was used to raise 578 bovines, it might be of pastoral value rather than forestry land.

In any case it would be worth investigating the responsibility of the provincial authorities with regard to the legal defenselessness of the affected families. And in the second place, why in this case the survey of the indigenous territory required by the provincial decree 2789 established by the National Law 26,160 was not done. Supposedly the law is written for the protection of not only the rich and powerful, but also, and in the first place, for the weak.    Editor:  Jorge Casale.