vi
Foreword
only goodwill and good intentions but also the solidity and consistency of the
scientific work to achieve good results. The scientific community and universities
must encourage logic, and not ideological, discussions and foster debates in a
democratic, diverse, and free environment. It is tough to develop a public policy
without a baseline to measure. If you cannot measure it, you cannot evaluate it; if
you cannot evaluate it with available and measurable data, it is not a public policy.
In this sense, the major deficit of our country as regards the environmental issues
has to do with statistics and baseline measurement. Therefore, to rearrange the
area, we need the strategic contribution of science and universities.
In line with these management policies, the Secretary of Environment and
Sustainable Development is working with two concrete actions as baselines: a
national inventory of landfills and a reforestation plan. There are three reasons why
we should choose national inventories of landfills as a measurement of the
anthropic activities generating an irreversible damage to the citizens’ quality of life.
First of all, there are many people still living in dumpsites, which is unacceptable.
In a circular and powerful economy undergoing a paradigm change, garbage should
be a waste turning into a resource. Therefore, if we fail to measure the base, we will
not change this situation easily. Second, as we measure garbage, we are also
measuring quality of life, as well as air, water, and earth purification. Finally, our
children and future generations are nowadays conscious that the culture of
recycling, reducing, and reusing is a must.
As regards the reforestation plan, it is aimed not only at achieving “zero
deforestation,” but also at curing the damage that has already been done. We should
differentiate guilt and responsibility here. I am not guilty, but I feel responsible. We
can neither stop climate change nor promote actions to take responsibility for what
we have done without a proactive policy of adding green to what has been
degraded. That is why the reforestation plan, as our management indicator, has
both technical and ethical components. The ethical component makes us
accountable for the future and, in an exemplary way, seeks to remedy and repair the
damage we have done.
Together with these elements that are the core of our environmental policy, there
is an autarchic entity called Administración de Parques Nacionales (National Park
Administration). It used to be part of the Secretary of Tourism, but it is now within the
structure of the Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development. It represents
an essential asset for Argentina in terms of environment and sustainable development.
Protected areas and parks are an asset that we must preserve and protect at all costs,
without regression or irreversibility. Accordingly, the President decided to double the
surface of protected and preserved areas as a sustainable development goal. And the
most critical innovation within that goal is ocean preservation and the creation of the
first two marine protected areas and national sea parks. This includes Yaganes Park
and Banco Burwood II, as well as the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá. Notice
that, in general, when we are asked to draw the map of Argentina, we outline the
continent, but take the sea for granted. Even though we always include the Malvinas
Islands and the Argentine Antarctica, we tend to forget that there is also a rich
territory in our seas. In this way, we will preserve 10% of marine areas and 300 km
2
Foreword
only goodwill and good intentions but also the solidity and consistency of the
scientific work to achieve good results. The scientific community and universities
must encourage logic, and not ideological, discussions and foster debates in a
democratic, diverse, and free environment. It is tough to develop a public policy
without a baseline to measure. If you cannot measure it, you cannot evaluate it; if
you cannot evaluate it with available and measurable data, it is not a public policy.
In this sense, the major deficit of our country as regards the environmental issues
has to do with statistics and baseline measurement. Therefore, to rearrange the
area, we need the strategic contribution of science and universities.
In line with these management policies, the Secretary of Environment and
Sustainable Development is working with two concrete actions as baselines: a
national inventory of landfills and a reforestation plan. There are three reasons why
we should choose national inventories of landfills as a measurement of the
anthropic activities generating an irreversible damage to the citizens’ quality of life.
First of all, there are many people still living in dumpsites, which is unacceptable.
In a circular and powerful economy undergoing a paradigm change, garbage should
be a waste turning into a resource. Therefore, if we fail to measure the base, we will
not change this situation easily. Second, as we measure garbage, we are also
measuring quality of life, as well as air, water, and earth purification. Finally, our
children and future generations are nowadays conscious that the culture of
recycling, reducing, and reusing is a must.
As regards the reforestation plan, it is aimed not only at achieving “zero
deforestation,” but also at curing the damage that has already been done. We should
differentiate guilt and responsibility here. I am not guilty, but I feel responsible. We
can neither stop climate change nor promote actions to take responsibility for what
we have done without a proactive policy of adding green to what has been
degraded. That is why the reforestation plan, as our management indicator, has
both technical and ethical components. The ethical component makes us
accountable for the future and, in an exemplary way, seeks to remedy and repair the
damage we have done.
Together with these elements that are the core of our environmental policy, there
is an autarchic entity called Administración de Parques Nacionales (National Park
Administration). It used to be part of the Secretary of Tourism, but it is now within the
structure of the Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development. It represents
an essential asset for Argentina in terms of environment and sustainable development.
Protected areas and parks are an asset that we must preserve and protect at all costs,
without regression or irreversibility. Accordingly, the President decided to double the
surface of protected and preserved areas as a sustainable development goal. And the
most critical innovation within that goal is ocean preservation and the creation of the
first two marine protected areas and national sea parks. This includes Yaganes Park
and Banco Burwood II, as well as the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá. Notice
that, in general, when we are asked to draw the map of Argentina, we outline the
continent, but take the sea for granted. Even though we always include the Malvinas
Islands and the Argentine Antarctica, we tend to forget that there is also a rich
territory in our seas. In this way, we will preserve 10% of marine areas and 300 km
2