321
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. J. Pastorino, P. Marchelli (eds.), Low Intensity Breeding of Native Forest
Trees in Argentina, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56462-9_12
Chapter 12
Subtropical Rainforests: The Yungas
and the Alto Paraná Rainforest
Luis F. Fornes
Argentinean subtropical rainforests include two formations, which are highly significant in terms of magnitude, biological diversity, and advanced degree of environmental degradation. These are the Tucumano-Oranense or Yungas Rainforest,
located at the Northwest part of Argentina (NWA), and the Alto Paraná Rainforest,
in the Northeast (NEA).
The historical background of the forestry activity that has developed in the
Argentine subtropical rainforests had a purely extractive basis. Abinzano (1985)
speaks about an “extractive front,” and defines it as the predominant form of occupation and organization of the economic circuits of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Then, forestry activity has been associated since the time of
colonization, and even before, with logging practices. The “extractive front”
involved a model of land use and occupation, and simultaneously a productive system of low investment and destruction of nonrenewable resources in the short term.
Moreover, this productive system was inserted in a market system regulated from
outside the region by the tradable sectors located in the port of Buenos Aires, which
soon developed the monopoly of the definitive industrialization of the products and
its mass marketing.
Logging history is an important factor that affects the genetic diversity and structure of many forest tree species. Several findings have demonstrated that overexploitation of valuable timbers puts genetic diversity at risk (Hall et al. 1994, 1996;
Lee et al. 2002). Genetic effects result in reduction of gene flow, loss of genetic
diversity within populations and species, changes in the genetic structure, genetic
drift, and inbreeding (Young and Boyle 2000). In addition, habitat disturbance
affects diversity, abundance, and behavior of pollinators with changes on mating
patterns of species (Aizen and Feinsinger 2002; Ward et al. 2005; Inza et al. 2012).
Genetic diversity is needed in order to ensure acclimation and evolutionary processes
L. F. Fornes (*)
INTA EEA Famaillá, Tucumán, Argentina
e-mail: fornes.luis@inta.gob.ar
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. J. Pastorino, P. Marchelli (eds.), Low Intensity Breeding of Native Forest
Trees in Argentina, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56462-9_12
Chapter 12
Subtropical Rainforests: The Yungas
and the Alto Paraná Rainforest
Luis F. Fornes
Argentinean subtropical rainforests include two formations, which are highly significant in terms of magnitude, biological diversity, and advanced degree of environmental degradation. These are the Tucumano-Oranense or Yungas Rainforest,
located at the Northwest part of Argentina (NWA), and the Alto Paraná Rainforest,
in the Northeast (NEA).
The historical background of the forestry activity that has developed in the
Argentine subtropical rainforests had a purely extractive basis. Abinzano (1985)
speaks about an “extractive front,” and defines it as the predominant form of occupation and organization of the economic circuits of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Then, forestry activity has been associated since the time of
colonization, and even before, with logging practices. The “extractive front”
involved a model of land use and occupation, and simultaneously a productive system of low investment and destruction of nonrenewable resources in the short term.
Moreover, this productive system was inserted in a market system regulated from
outside the region by the tradable sectors located in the port of Buenos Aires, which
soon developed the monopoly of the definitive industrialization of the products and
its mass marketing.
Logging history is an important factor that affects the genetic diversity and structure of many forest tree species. Several findings have demonstrated that overexploitation of valuable timbers puts genetic diversity at risk (Hall et al. 1994, 1996;
Lee et al. 2002). Genetic effects result in reduction of gene flow, loss of genetic
diversity within populations and species, changes in the genetic structure, genetic
drift, and inbreeding (Young and Boyle 2000). In addition, habitat disturbance
affects diversity, abundance, and behavior of pollinators with changes on mating
patterns of species (Aizen and Feinsinger 2002; Ward et al. 2005; Inza et al. 2012).
Genetic diversity is needed in order to ensure acclimation and evolutionary processes
L. F. Fornes (*)
INTA EEA Famaillá, Tucumán, Argentina
e-mail: fornes.luis@inta.gob.ar