DEFORESTATION, NATIVE FOREST LAW AND PRIVATE CONTROL REINFORCEMENT AT NORTH ARGENTINE DRY CHACO FORESTS

MARINARO SOFÍA; PIRIZ CARRILLO VERÓNICA R.; GASPARRI N. IGNACIO

POSADAS

Conferencia; IUFRO Conference 2018; 2018

Subtropical dry forests are among the largest and threatened terrestrial biomes in South America.In Argentina, to mitigate this problem a national ?Native Forest Law? was passed in 2007, framing territorial ordinations of forests. According the category in the ordinations, a forest can be converted, managed but not cleared, or preserved. In the North Argentine Dry Chaco (NADC), one of the most active frontiers for the agricultural advance, a common practice is properties? delimitation. This mechanism consists in fencing and clearing the perimeter, usually previous to forest clearing. In this work we examine how the Native Forest Law modified the dynamic between private control reinforcement and deforestation at the NADC. Specifically, we 1) estimated deforested area at NADC and within-delimited-properties, during 2000-2017; 2) compared percentages of area deforested within-delimited-properties between three periods: before the law was passed (2000-2007), just after the sanction (2007-2011), and since the ordinations until now (2011-2017); and finally, we 3) overlapped area deforested withindelimited-properties, to the classes of the territorial ordination with restriction for clearance; for periods 2007-2011 and 2011-2017. Total deforested area at the NADC reached the 17% of the region at 2017. Total deforested area was 29982 km2 during 2000-2017; of which the 24% occurred within-delimited-properties (n=1056). Percentages of area deforested within-delimited properties were 27%, 44% and 42% at 2000-2007, 2007-2011 and 2011-2017, respectively. A total extent of 2246 km2 across the study area was deforested within delimited properties on areas under restriction for deforestation: 1422 km2 during 2007-2011, and 823 km2 during 2011-2017. Our results showed a no-clear pattern about the destiny of the delimited properties. It could indicate a will of land-cover change, which would translate into the loss of ecosystem services. But it could also represent a mechanism of private control reinforcement, restricting the access of local people, strongly dependent on forest resources.