9
turn displacing local livestock to more marginal sites due to its inaccessibility,
lower water availability, and/or denser forest cover.
• The relocation of livestock production from the Pampas grassland (now dedicated to agricultural crops, predominantly soy) to forest areas.
• The real estate speculation associated with the urban development of the suburban belt of big and small cities surrounded by forests.
• Lack of environmental awareness that values forest services, mainly in the communities associated with them.
• Natural and anthropogenic forest fires. Between 2010 and 2016, an average of
102,041 ha of native forest were burned per year (SGAyDS 2018a).
• Precarious land tenure, with large fiscal areas occupied over generations without
title to property and with permanent risk of eviction.
• Weakness of control and oversight policies and institutions, with low allocation
of financial and human resources.
1.4 Official Trade Statistics for Timber and Non-timber
Products of Native Tree Species
The official statistics of the National State represent the best source of information
to weigh the impact that economic interests have on the use of Argentina’s natural
forest ecosystems. However, it must be recognized that informality and a gray economy characterize the use and exploitation of the resources provided by native forests, leaving this significant economic circuit out of consideration of official data.
Forest products accounted for just 1% of Argentine exports in 2017, while they
represented 2.1% of imports, both largely defined by the trade of paper and cardboard that are produced almost exclusively with cultivated introduced species. The
country’s trade balance of forest products expressed in values has been clearly in
deficit in recent years, with an average negative balance from 2011 to 2017 of
854.6 million US $/year (SGAyDS 2018b).
Primary forest production with native species comes almost exclusively from the
natural forest. Only the plantations with Araucaria angustifolia (and to a lesser
extent with Prosopis sp.) have an appreciable productive volume in formal trade. In
the 2015 statistics, only 588 m
3
of A. angustifolia roundwood are recorded, which
were produced in plantations in the Province of Misiones and destined for the plywood industry (MAyDS 2017b). However, in the medium term, an increase in the
offer of wood from planted native species is expected as the plantations of the last
decades with Prosopis sp. and Cedrela sp. reach the cutting period. In this sense, the
planting of native species would relax the pressure of use of natural forests, at the
same time that it would ensure the maintenance of markets that are reduced year by
year by the depletion of the natural resource.
Annually the native forests produce 3,776,591 tons of wood products (average
from 2010 to 2016) corresponding to logs, firewood as such, and firewood for
1 Native Forests Claim for Breeding in Argentina: General Concepts and Their State
turn displacing local livestock to more marginal sites due to its inaccessibility,
lower water availability, and/or denser forest cover.
• The relocation of livestock production from the Pampas grassland (now dedicated to agricultural crops, predominantly soy) to forest areas.
• The real estate speculation associated with the urban development of the suburban belt of big and small cities surrounded by forests.
• Lack of environmental awareness that values forest services, mainly in the communities associated with them.
• Natural and anthropogenic forest fires. Between 2010 and 2016, an average of
102,041 ha of native forest were burned per year (SGAyDS 2018a).
• Precarious land tenure, with large fiscal areas occupied over generations without
title to property and with permanent risk of eviction.
• Weakness of control and oversight policies and institutions, with low allocation
of financial and human resources.
1.4 Official Trade Statistics for Timber and Non-timber
Products of Native Tree Species
The official statistics of the National State represent the best source of information
to weigh the impact that economic interests have on the use of Argentina’s natural
forest ecosystems. However, it must be recognized that informality and a gray economy characterize the use and exploitation of the resources provided by native forests, leaving this significant economic circuit out of consideration of official data.
Forest products accounted for just 1% of Argentine exports in 2017, while they
represented 2.1% of imports, both largely defined by the trade of paper and cardboard that are produced almost exclusively with cultivated introduced species. The
country’s trade balance of forest products expressed in values has been clearly in
deficit in recent years, with an average negative balance from 2011 to 2017 of
854.6 million US $/year (SGAyDS 2018b).
Primary forest production with native species comes almost exclusively from the
natural forest. Only the plantations with Araucaria angustifolia (and to a lesser
extent with Prosopis sp.) have an appreciable productive volume in formal trade. In
the 2015 statistics, only 588 m
3
of A. angustifolia roundwood are recorded, which
were produced in plantations in the Province of Misiones and destined for the plywood industry (MAyDS 2017b). However, in the medium term, an increase in the
offer of wood from planted native species is expected as the plantations of the last
decades with Prosopis sp. and Cedrela sp. reach the cutting period. In this sense, the
planting of native species would relax the pressure of use of natural forests, at the
same time that it would ensure the maintenance of markets that are reduced year by
year by the depletion of the natural resource.
Annually the native forests produce 3,776,591 tons of wood products (average
from 2010 to 2016) corresponding to logs, firewood as such, and firewood for
1 Native Forests Claim for Breeding in Argentina: General Concepts and Their State