11
Minimum Requirements for Environmental Protection of Native Forests, finally
regulated and implemented in January 2009.
Law 26,331 regulates, promotes, and finances the conservation of native forests
(including restoration) based on a territorial planning that divides the forests into
three categories according to their conservation value: very high (symbolized with
the color red), moderate (yellow), and low (green). Each of the categories has a
series of activities enabled or restricted to be carried out in them. Red areas should
not be transformed, but they can be the habitat of indigenous communities and the
object of scientific research. The yellow areas can additionally be utilized for tourism, gathering, and sustainable use. Green areas can be transformed, radically
changing land use, converting them into cultivation areas or urbanization, after
approval of a change of use plan.
In keeping with the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, which defined the
provincial ownership of natural resources, it is the provinces that must carry out this
territorial planning, establishing it by provincial law adhering to Law 26,331.
Consequently, as of 2009, the 23 Argentine provinces, with unequal haste, began to
perform the territorial planning of their forests with the criteria of Law 26,331 and
to adhere to it (the last was the Province of Buenos Aires, which enacted its provincial adhesion law only in 2017). The sum of the areas subjected to the territorial
planning by each of the provinces results in the surface occupied by native forests
in Argentina according to the consideration of those who have jurisdiction over
them (the provinces). This value is 53,654,545 ha, some 22 million hectares more
than those reported as native forest by the 1998 national inventory. The difference is
explained by the valuation of its own resources that each province made, considering ecosystems of the inventory category “other forest lands” as forests. Of this total
area, 19% was classified as having a high conservation value, 61% as a moderate
conservation value, and 20% as a low conservation value.
The Law creates a specific fund that must be assigned annually to the provinces
according to their forest area in red and yellow categories, to compensate them for
the conservation of their forests, as a kind of payment for the environmental services they provide for humanity. Forest land owners receive 70% of these funds in
order to perform a conservation plan, including restoration programs or simple prevention of threats such as livestock grazing. The remaining 30% of the funds are
available to the provinces for (a) institutional strengthening with the objective of
supervising the conservation plans of the private properties, (b) monitoring the conservation status of their forests, and (c) assisting settlers and indigenous communities who live within the forests.
Ten years after its implementation, the Law has failed to suppress deforestation
in Argentina. The prolonged discussion prior to its enactment and the delay in its
regulation accelerated requests for land use change permits without the restrictions
of the Law, causing the undesired effect of increasing the deforestation rate until the
first years of its implementation (Fig. 1.3). Even a strong increase in forest fires has
been identified during the transition stage in the implementation of the Law (Egolf
2017). In the period 2009–2011, that is, while the majority of the provinces were
carrying out their territorial planning of forests, the number of forest fires doubled
1 Native Forests Claim for Breeding in Argentina: General Concepts and Their State
Minimum Requirements for Environmental Protection of Native Forests, finally
regulated and implemented in January 2009.
Law 26,331 regulates, promotes, and finances the conservation of native forests
(including restoration) based on a territorial planning that divides the forests into
three categories according to their conservation value: very high (symbolized with
the color red), moderate (yellow), and low (green). Each of the categories has a
series of activities enabled or restricted to be carried out in them. Red areas should
not be transformed, but they can be the habitat of indigenous communities and the
object of scientific research. The yellow areas can additionally be utilized for tourism, gathering, and sustainable use. Green areas can be transformed, radically
changing land use, converting them into cultivation areas or urbanization, after
approval of a change of use plan.
In keeping with the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, which defined the
provincial ownership of natural resources, it is the provinces that must carry out this
territorial planning, establishing it by provincial law adhering to Law 26,331.
Consequently, as of 2009, the 23 Argentine provinces, with unequal haste, began to
perform the territorial planning of their forests with the criteria of Law 26,331 and
to adhere to it (the last was the Province of Buenos Aires, which enacted its provincial adhesion law only in 2017). The sum of the areas subjected to the territorial
planning by each of the provinces results in the surface occupied by native forests
in Argentina according to the consideration of those who have jurisdiction over
them (the provinces). This value is 53,654,545 ha, some 22 million hectares more
than those reported as native forest by the 1998 national inventory. The difference is
explained by the valuation of its own resources that each province made, considering ecosystems of the inventory category “other forest lands” as forests. Of this total
area, 19% was classified as having a high conservation value, 61% as a moderate
conservation value, and 20% as a low conservation value.
The Law creates a specific fund that must be assigned annually to the provinces
according to their forest area in red and yellow categories, to compensate them for
the conservation of their forests, as a kind of payment for the environmental services they provide for humanity. Forest land owners receive 70% of these funds in
order to perform a conservation plan, including restoration programs or simple prevention of threats such as livestock grazing. The remaining 30% of the funds are
available to the provinces for (a) institutional strengthening with the objective of
supervising the conservation plans of the private properties, (b) monitoring the conservation status of their forests, and (c) assisting settlers and indigenous communities who live within the forests.
Ten years after its implementation, the Law has failed to suppress deforestation
in Argentina. The prolonged discussion prior to its enactment and the delay in its
regulation accelerated requests for land use change permits without the restrictions
of the Law, causing the undesired effect of increasing the deforestation rate until the
first years of its implementation (Fig. 1.3). Even a strong increase in forest fires has
been identified during the transition stage in the implementation of the Law (Egolf
2017). In the period 2009–2011, that is, while the majority of the provinces were
carrying out their territorial planning of forests, the number of forest fires doubled
1 Native Forests Claim for Breeding in Argentina: General Concepts and Their State