Abstract
The Pilcomayo River is unique in several ways, including its massive sediment load, one of the world’s largest alluvial fans, and a constantly changing channel that occasionally blocks and overflows over vast areas. Most of the northern half of the Province of Formosa (Argentina) is covered by the vast wetland system known as the Bañado La Estrella, in the middle Pilcomayo basin. Due to repeated obstructions of the channel that functioned as the border between Argentina and Paraguay, the Bañado La Estrella expanded from the 1920s until the 1990s, when both nations agreed to the Pantalón project: They divided the river in two out of concern over losing complete access to resources like water and fish. Since then, the middle Pilcomayo basin has been subject to constant engineering works to prevent further changes (dams, channel construction, and dredging), and efforts to promote conservation and ecotourism such as its declaration as one of the 7 New Natural Wonders of Argentina. This article analyzes three environmental problems of the middle Pilcomayo basin and Bañado La Estrella that mainly affect rural and indigenous communities. Using the conceptual framework of wicked problems, we state that these issues are often conceptualized or explained in contradictory ways, both within and between different social groups. Also, they do not present straightforward solutions, but are best addressed with more democratic and bottom-up approaches. Finally, we suggest that science’s function should be to contribute to basin resilience by enhancing these approaches and informing decisions while preserving complexity in the discussion.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Notes
All translations were done by GGJ.
Qomle’ec is their autonym in Qom language which means “people”. Other names for this group include Toba, Qom, Toba-Pilagá, Western Qom, Bolivian Tobas. The term “Toba”, which means large forehead in Guaraní language, is now considered somehow pejorative, but it remains as their autonym when they speak Spanish.
Our translation of the local expressions barreras de contención and anillos de contención, which describe localized dams that redirect watercourses, usually protecting towns, roads, and other infrastructure.
This was of particular interest to Bolivian authorities after losing access to the Pacific due to the war with Chile. The Pilcomayo was pictured as the most direct waterway from the mining hotspot around Potosí to the Atlantic.
This area represents approximately 10% of their territory prior to colonization and political division of the three countries.
In Anthropology, (key) informants are persons that collaborate with the anthropologists during fieldwork by several means including giving interviews, showing cultural processes, and discussing topics in daily talks. They are usually people who are very knowledgeable about the region and its people (Vivanco 2018).
References
Abbott MB (2003) Intensive pre-incan Metallurgy recorded by Lake sediments from the bolivian Andes. Science 301:1893–1895. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1087806
Acreman M, Holden J (2013) How wetlands affect floods. Wetlands 33:773–786. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-013-0473-2
Adamoli J, Sennhauser E, Acero JM, Rescia A (1990) Stress and disturbance: Vegetation dynamics in the dry Chaco Region of Argentina. Journal of Biogeography 17:491. https://doi.org/10.2307/2845381
Akamani K, Holzmueller EJ, Groninger JW (2016) Managing wicked environmental problems as Complex Social-Ecological Systems: the Promise of Adaptive Governance. In: Melesse AM, Abtew W (eds) Landscape Dynamics, Soils and hydrological processes in Varied Climates. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 741–762
Amarilla M, Laboranti C (2011) Propuesta de sistema de reparto de aguas en un río interjurisdiccional. Santiago del Estero, Argentina, pp 1–18
Archer J, Hudson-Edwards KA, Preston DA et al (2005) Aqueous exposure and uptake of arsenic by riverside communities affected by mining contamination in the Río Pilcomayo basin, Bolivia. Mineralogical Magazine 69:719–736. https://doi.org/10.1180/0026461056950283
Arenas P (2003) Etnografía y alimentación entre los Toba-Ñachilamole#ek y Wichí-Lhuku’tas del Chaco Central, Argentina, 1st edn. Latin Gráfica, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Arenas P, Scarpa GF (2007) Edible wild plants of the Chorote Indians, Gran Chaco, Argentina. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 153:73–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2007.00576.x
Aurand M (2010) Formosa: el imperio del verde. Relaciones interétnicas y actividad turística: comunidades toba, wichí y pilagá. Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Beck HH (2009) La política oficial contra los derechos de los pobladores del Bañado La Estrella de Formosa. Historia de un conflicto. In: Mari O, Mateo G, Valenzuela C (eds) Territorio, Poder e Identidad en el Agro Argentino. Imagomundi, pp 67–81
Boivin NL, Zeder MA, Fuller DQ et al (2016) Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113:6388–6396. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525200113
Braunstein J (2005) Los pueblos indígenas del gran Chaco. Mundo de Antes 4:127–137
Braunstein J (1993) Alcances y limitaciones del consentimiento informado grupal a la luz de la organización social de los indígenas chaqueños. In Hacia Una Nueva Carta Étnica Del Gran Chaco, Vol. 8. Las Lomitas, Formosa
Brown AD, Foguet MJ, García Moritán M, Malizia S (2010) Bitácora Bañado La Estrella: dinámica fluvial de un espacio compartido. Tucumán, Argentina: Ediciones del Subtrópico, Fundación ProYungas
Candia (2009) Ley ambiental dictada en la Provincia de Formosa es confiscatoria debienes y afecta propiedad comunitaria de comunidades aborigenes. In: Derecho de los Pueblos Indígenas. https://web.archive.org/web/20090723234532/http://www.indigenas.bioetica.org/nota31.htm. Accessed 12 Jul 2021
Carpio MB, Mendoza M (2018) Tobas occidentales del Chaco Boreal (Sudamérica): evidencia de contactos etnohistóricos y lingüísticos. INDIANA Bd. 35:165–189 Seiten. https://doi.org/10.18441/IND.V35I1.165-189
Coltorti M, Della Fazia J, Paredes Rios F, Tito G (2010) The Ñuagapua alluvial fan sequence: Early and Late Holocene human-induced changes in the Bolivian Chaco? Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 121:218–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.11.003
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008a) Retroceso y divagación del Río Pilcomayo. In Línea Base Ambiental y Socioeconómica de La Cuenca Del Río Pilcomayo. Tarija, Bolivia: Comunicación Inteligente
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008b) Línea base ambiental y socioeconómica de la cuenca del Río Pilcomayo. Comunicación Inteligente, Tarija, Bolivia
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008c) Peligro geológico en la cuenca. In Línea Base Ambiental y Socioeconómica de La Cuenca Del Río Pilcomayo. Tarija, Bolivia: Comunicación Inteligente
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008d) Degradación del recurso pesquero. Línea base ambiental y socioeconómica de la cuenca del Río Pilcomayo
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008e) Contaminacion del agua de la cuenca. In Línea Base Ambiental y Socioeconómica de La Cuenca Del Río Pilcomayo. Tarija, Bolivia: Comunicación Inteligente
Comisión Trinacional del Pilcomayo (2008f) Degradación ambiental por pasivos ambientales. In Línea Base Ambiental y Socioeconómica de La Cuenca Del Río Pilcomayo. Tarija, Bolivia: Comunicación Inteligente
da Cunha D (2018) The invention of rivers: Alexander’s eye and Ganga’s descent, 1st edition. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
da Silva LPB, Hussein H (2019) Production of scale in regional hydropolitics: an analysis of La Plata River Basin and the Guarani Aquifer System in South America. Geoforum 99:42–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.11.019
Dapilah F, Nielsen J, Friis C (2020) The role of social networks in building adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change: a case study from northern Ghana. Climate and Development 12:42–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1596063
Dasso MC (2010) Memorias y representaciones sobre el criollo del chaco argentino. Confluenze Rivisti Di Studi Iberoamericani 2:236–253. https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2036-0967/2008
de la Cruz LM, Acosta LA (2004) “Estudio y evaluación del proyecto ‘reconstrucción de la ruta provincial No28’ de La Dirección de Recursos Hídricos de La Provincia de Formosa.” Formosa, Argentina: Fundación Fungir
De Marzo T, Pflugmacher D, Baumann M et al (2021) Characterizing forest disturbances across the Argentine Dry Chaco based on landsat time series. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 98:102310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2021.102310
DeFries R, Nagendra H (2017) Ecosystem management as a wicked problem. Science 356:265–270. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal1950
Diario Río Negro (2020) Por Cierre de Una Compuerta Murieron Miles de Peces En Formosa.” September 15, 2020. https://www.rionegro.com.ar/por-cierre-de-una-compuerta-murieron-miles-de-peces-en-formosa-1500236/
Fischer J, Abson DJ, Butsic V et al (2014) Land sparing versus land sharing: moving forward. Conservation Letters 7:149–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12084
Formosa L de la P de (1984) Ley Numero 426 “Ley Integral del Aborigen”
Formosa L de la P de (1993) Ley Numero 1060 “Política ecológica y ambiental”
Formosa L de la P de (2004a) Ley Numero 1429 “Declaración de Interés Provincial de la Obra Reconstrucción de la Ruta Provincial No28”
Formosa L de la P de (2004b) Ley numero 1439 “Declaración de utilidad pública a las superficies necesarias para la ejecución de la obra recontrucción Ruta No28”
Formosa L de la P de (2005) Ley numero 1471 “Reserva Provincial. Bañado la Estrella”
Giordano M (2004) Itinerario de imágenes del indígena chaqueño. Del “Territorio Indio del Norte” al Territorio Nacional y Provincia del Chaco. Anuario de Estudios Americanos 61:517–550. https://doi.org/10.3989/aeamer.2004.v61.i2.131
Gordillo G (2010a) Lugares de diablos: tensiones del espacio y la memoria. Prometeo Libros, Buenos Aires
Gordillo G (2010b) Historias de los bosques que alguna vez fueron pastizales: la producción de la naturaleza en la frontera argentino-paraguaya. Población & Sociedad 17:59–79
Gordillo G (1993) La actual dinámica económica de los cazadores-recolectores del gran Chaco y los deseos imaginarios del esencialismo. Publicar en Antropología y Ciencias Sociales 3:73–96
Gordillo G (ed) (2005) Nosotros vamos a estar acá para siempre: historias tobas. Biblos, Buenos Aires
Gordillo G, Leguizamón JM (2002) El río y la frontera: movilizaciones aborígenes, obras públicas y MERCOSUR en el Pilcomayo, 1st edn. Editorial Biblos, Buenos Aires
Grundmann R (2016) Climate change as a wicked social problem. Nature Geoscience 9:562–563. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2780
Guevara Ramírez GV (2016) La minería y la extracción de hidrocarburos en los Weenhayek. In Revista del Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, Bolivia, pp 191–202
Herrera V (2019) Reconciling global aspirations and local realities: Challenges facing the Sustainable Development Goals for water and sanitation. World Development 118:106–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.02.009
Hoffman KM, Davis EL, Wickham SB et al(2021) Conservation of Earth’s biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:e2105073118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105073118
Hudson-Edwards KA, Macklin MG, Miller JR, Lechler PJ (2001) Sources, distribution and storage of heavy metals in the Río Pilcomayo, Bolivia. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72:229–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-6742(01)00164-9
Ingold T (1993) The temporality of the Landscape. World Archaeology 25:152–174
Iñigo Carrera V(2012) Movilización indígena en el Chaco argentino. Acción y conciencia políticas entre los qom del este de Formosa. INDIANA 273–301 Páginas. https://doi.org/10.18441/IND.V29I0.273-301
Iriondo M (1993) Geomorphology and late quaternary of the Chaco (South America). Geomorphology 7:289–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-555X(93)90059-B
Iriondo M (1999) Climatic changes in the South American plains: records of a continent-scale oscillation. Quaternary International 57–58:93–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6182(98)00053-6
Iriondo M, Colombo F, Kröhling D (2000) El abanico aluvial del Pilcomayo, Chaco (Argentina - Bolivia - Paraguay): características y significado sedimentario. Geogaceta 28:79–82
Kosow H, Kirschke S, Borchardt D et al (2022) Scenarios of water extremes: framing ways forward for wicked problems. Hydrological Processes. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14492
Krause F (2016) “One man’s Flood Defense is another Man’s Flood”: relating through Water flows in Gloucestershire, England. Society and Natural Resources 29:681–695. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2015.1107787
Krause F (2017) Rhythms of wet and dry: temporalising the land-water nexus. Geoforum S0016718517303378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.12.001
Laboranti C (2011) Pilcomayo River Basin Institutional structure. International Journal of Water Resources Development 27:539–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2011.596147
Lamenza GN (2015) Sig Y Teledetección En Investigaciones Arqueológicas Del Chaco Argentino. Arqueología Iberoamericana 40–54. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.1312586
Lamenza GN, Calandra HA, Salceda SA (2019) Arqueología de los ríos Pilcomayo, Bermejo y Paraguay. Revista del Museo de La Plata 4:481–510. https://doi.org/10.24215/25456377e086
Lanza N, Valeggia C (2014) Cambios demográficos en una población rural de la etnia toba del norte de Argentina. Latin Am Res Rev 49:107–128. https://doi.org/10.1353/lar.2014.0028
Lanza N, Valeggia C, Peláez E (2013) The Reproductive transition in an Indigenous Population of Northern Argentina. Biodemography and Social Biology 59:212–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/19485565.2013.833784
Latrubesse EM (2015) Large rivers, megafans and other quaternary avulsive fluvial systems: a potential “who’s who” in the geological record. Earth-Science Reviews 146:1–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.03.004
Lavilla EO, Ghioni M (1999) El Río Pilcomayo en Misión La Paz (Salta, Argentina). Caracterización físico-química de las aguas y resultados ictiológicos y toxicológicos. Campaña 1997–1998. San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina: Fundación Miguel Lillo
Lazarus RJ (2009) Super wicked problems and climate change: restraining the Present to liberate the future. Cornell Law Review 94:84
Leake D (2012) Under an Algarrobo tree: a memoir, first published. Loxwood Press, Worthing, West Sussex
Leier AL, DeCelles PG, Pelletier JD (2005) Mountains, monsoons, and megafans. Geology 33:289–292. https://doi.org/10.1130/G21228.1
Lerner S, Brown P (2012) Sacrifice zones: the front lines of toxic chemical exposure in the United States. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Levin K, Cashore B, Bernstein S, Auld G (2012) Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change. Policy Sciences 45:123–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0
Levy MC, Garcia M, Blair P et al (2016) Wicked but worth it: student perspectives on socio-hydrology: wicked but worth it: Student Perspectives on Socio-Hydrology. Hydrological Processes 30:1467–1472. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10791
Lindgren W, Creveling JG (1928) The ores of Potosi, Bolivia. Economic Geology 23:233–262. https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.23.3.233
Martín-Vide JP, Amarilla M, Zárate FJ (2014) Collapse of the Pilcomayo River. Geomorphology 205:155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.12.007
Matarrese M (2012) Un recorrido histórico por el territorio Pilagá. Revista Pilquen - Sección Ciencias Sociales 15:95–104
Matarrese M (2013a) Violando derechos y removiendo muertos: el caso del Bañado de la Estrella. In Gran Chaco: ontologías, poder, afectividad, edited by Florencia Tola, Celeste Medrano, and Lorena Cardin. Ethnographica. Buenos Aires: Asociación Civil Rumbo Sur
Matarrese M (2013b) Disputas y negociaciones en torno al territorio pilagá (provincia de Formosa). RUNA, Archivo Para Las Ciencias Del Hombre 34:259–261
Matarrese M (2018) Política indigenista y política indígena pilagá en materia de tenencia de la tierra. Question 1:049. https://doi.org/10.24215/16696581e049
McEwen L, Garde-Hansen J, Holmes A et al (2017) Sustainable flood memories, lay knowledges and the development of community resilience to future flood risk. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42:14–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12149
Mendoza M (2002) Band mobility and leadership among the western Toba hunter-gatherers of Gran Chaco in Argentina. E. Mellen Press, Lewiston
Mendoza M (2019) The bolivian Toba (Guaicuruan) expansion in Northern Gran Chaco, 1550–1850. Ethnohistory 66:275–300. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-7298783
Mendoza M (2020) Los tobas de Bolivia: resiliencia y adaptación en el Chaco Boreal. Revista del Museo de La Plata 5:639–656. https://doi.org/10.24215/25456377e134
Menna F, Fernández B, Moresco M et al (2019) Género, tic y cambio climático. FLACSO
Merten J, Nielsen J, Rosyani et al (2021) From rising water to floods: disentangling the production of flooding as a hazard in Sumatra, Indonesia. Geoforum 118:56–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.11.005
Métraux A (1973) Conversaciones con kedok y Pedro. In Religion y magias indigenas de America del sur (Réligions et magies indiennes d’amérique du sud, span.). Cultura e historia. Madrid: Aguilar pp 101–140
Miller ES (1979) Los tobas argentinos: armonía y disonancia en una sociedad. Antropología. México: Siglo Veintiuno Editores
Miller ES (ed) (1999) Peoples of the Gran Chaco. Bergin & Garvey, Westport
Miller JR, Hudson-Edwards KA, Lechler PJ et al (2004) Heavy metal contamination of water, soil and produce within riverine communities of the Río Pilcomayo basin, Bolivia. Science of the Total Environment 320:189–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2003.08.011
Morello J, Pengue W, Rodríguez A (2013) Un siglo de cambios de diseño del paisaje: el chaco argentino. Medio Ambiente y Urbanización 79:25–64
Ney S, Verweij M (2015) Messy institutions for wicked problems: how to generate clumsy solutions? Environ Plann C Gov Policy 33:1679–1696. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263774X15614450
Nygren A (2021) Water and power, water’s power: state-making and socionature shaping volatile rivers and riverine people in Mexico. World Development 146:105615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105615
Otte ML, Fang W-T, Jiang M (2021) A Framework for identifying reference Wetland Conditions in highly altered landscapes. Wetlands 41:40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01439-0
Peters BG (2017) What is so wicked about wicked problems? A conceptual analysis and a research program. Policy and Society 36:385–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2017.1361633
Piotrkowski G(2019) Bañado La Estrella, la nueva maravilla argentina que merece una visita. La Nación. December 5, 2019, sec. Turismo. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/turismo/viajes/banado-la-estrella-una-maravillapoco-conocida-nid2246244/
Preston D (2012) Household and community responses to mining- related river contamination in the upper Pilcomayo basin, Bolivia. In Social conflict, economic development and the extractive industry: evidence from South America, edited by Anthony Bebbington. London; New York: Routledge
Pretes M (2002) Touring mines and mining tourists. Annals of Tourism Research 29:439–456. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(01)00041-X
Pyke ML, Toussaint S, Close PG et al (2018) Wetlands need people: a framework for understanding and promoting australian indigenous wetland management. Ecology and Society 23:art43. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10283-230343
Rayner S (2017) Wicked problems. In: Richardson D, Castree N, Goodchild MF et al (eds) International Encyclopedia of Geography: people, the Earth, Environment and Technology. Wiley, Oxford, pp 1–2
Rittel HWJ, Webber MM (1973) Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences 4:155–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730
Rosenberg CE, Carpinetti BN, Apartín C (2005) Contenido de metales pesados en tejidos de Sábalos (Prochilodus Lineatus) del Río Pilcomayo, Misión La Paz, Provincia de Salta. Natura Neotropicalis 2:141–145. https://doi.org/10.14409/natura.v2i32.3779
Salamanca C (2011) Movilizaciones indígenas, mapas e historias por la propiedad de la tierra en el Chaco argentino: la lucha de las familias tobas por Poxoyaxaic Alhua. Informes y crónicas de investigación 1. Capital Federal, Argentina: FLASCO
Santo DE (2016) Recursivity and the self-reflexive cosmos: tricksters in cuban and Brazilian Spirit Mediumship Practices. Social Anal. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600104
Scarpa GF, Arenas P (2004) Vegetation units of the Argentine semi-arid Chaco: the Toba-Pilaga’perception. Phytocoenologia 34:133–161. https://doi.org/10.1127/0340-269X/2004/0034-0133
Smolders AJP, Archer J, Stassen M et al(2013) Concentraciones metálicas en cabellos de habitantes de las orillas de la cuenca media del Río Pilcomayo. Revista Boliviana de Ecología y Conservación Ambiental, 13–22
Smolders AJP, Guerrero Hiza MA, van der Velde G, Roelofs JGM (2002) Dynamics of discharge, sediment transport, heavy metal pollution and Sábalo (Prochilodus lineatus) catches in the lower Pilcomayo river (Bolivia): River Dynamics, Bolivia. River Research and Applications 18:415–427. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.690
Smolders AJP, Lock RAC, Van der Velde G et al (2003) Effects of mining activities on heavy metal concentrations in water, sediment, and macroinvertebrates in different reaches of the Pilcomayo River, South America. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 44:314–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-002-2042-1
Smolders AJP, van der Velde G, Roelofs JGM, Guerrero Hiza MA (2000) El Niño caused collapse of the Sábalo Fishery (Prochilodus lineatus, Pisces: Prochilodontidae) in a south American River. Naturwissenschaften 87:30–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050004
Stassen MJM, Preeker NL, Ragas AMJ et al (2012) Metal exposure and reproductive disorders in indigenous communities living along the Pilcomayo River, Bolivia. Science of the Total Environment 427–428:26–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.03.072
Stassen MJM, van de Ven MWPM, van der Heide T et al (2010) Population dynamics of the migratory fish Prochilodus lineatus in a neotropical river: the relationships with river discharge, flood pulse, El Niño and fluvial megafan behaviour. Neotropical Ichthyol 8:113–122. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1679-62252010005000006
Strosnider WHJ, Llanos López FS, Nairn RW (2011) Acid mine drainage at Cerro Rico de Potosí I: unabated high-strength discharges reflect a five century legacy of mining. Environment and Earth Science 64:899–910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-0996-x
Télam (2018) El río Pilcomayo sigue creciendo y las provincias se mantienen en alerta. Agencia Nacional de Noticias. February 22, 2018. https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201802/252753-el-rio-pilcomayo-sigue-creciendo-ylas-provincias-se-mantienen-en-alerta.html
Testa Tacchino AJS (2015) Caracterización de desbordes del Río pilcomayo entre Villamontes y Misión La Paz. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Tola F (2016) El “giro ontológico” y la relación naturaleza/cultura. Reflexiones desde el Gran Chaco. Apuntes de Investigación del CECYP 27:128–139
Trimble M, Jacobi PR, Olivier T et al (2021) Reconfiguring Water Governance for resilient Social-Ecological Systems in South America. In: Baird J, Plummer R et al (eds) Water Resilience. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 113–135
Tye S (2021) Communities in South America’s Gran Chaco are organizing to withstand climate change. In: Insights. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/gran-chaco-communities-build-climate-resilience. Accessed 21 Jun 2021
Urquidi-Barrau F (2015) Compendio de la situación de los recursos hídricos en las ciudades capitales departamentales de Bolivia. Urban water: challenges in the Americas: a perspective from the Academies of Sciences., edited by Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences and Unesco
Valeggia CR, Burke KM, Fernandez-Duque E (2010) Nutritional status and socioeconomic change among Toba and Wichí populations of the Argentinean Chaco. Econ Hum Biology 8:100–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2009.11.001
Varela M(2021) Reflexiones ontológicas sobre un conflicto ambiental. RUNA, archivo para las ciencias del hombre 42:141–156. https://doi.org/10.34096/runa.v42i2.7672
Villar PC, Ribeiro WC, Sant’Anna FM (2018) Transboundary governance in the La Plata River basin: status and prospects. Water Int 43:978–995. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2018.1490879
Villarroel LF, Miller JR, Lechler PJ, Germanoski D (2006) Lead, zinc, and antimony contamination of the Rio Chilco-Rio Tupiza drainage system, Southern Bolivia. Environmental Geology 51:283–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0326-x
Vivanco LA (2018) A dictionary of cultural anthropology, first edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Voskoboynik DM, Andreucci D (2022) Greening extractivism: environmental discourses and resource governance in the ‘Lithium Triangle.’ Environment and Planning. Nat Space 5:787–809. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211006345
Zoom R (2004) Formosa y los indígenas del “Bañado La Estrella”. Hoja de ruta de un atropello. Zoom Revista. Política y Sociedad en foco, November 20, 2004. https://revistazoom.com.ar/formosa-y-los-indigenas-delbanado-la-estrella-hoja-de-ruta-de-un-atropello/
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank in the first place the community of Sombrero Negro in general and the families Pérez, Larrea, and García in particular, for their collaboration and support. Then, we would like to thank geologist Camila Conesa for her help in the interpretation of geological, hydrological, mining, and chemical aspects of the basin. We would also like to thank three Institutions that freely provided bibliography, resources, and consultation for this research: the National Geographic Institute of Argentina, the Florentino Ameghino Library of the National University of La Plata, and the Trinational Commission of the Pilcomayo. Finally, we would like the thank the editors and anonymous reviewers of the Wetlands Journal whose suggestions improved the clarity and quality of this manuscript. This article is dedicated to the memories of the Gran Chaco historian Hugo Beck and the Qomle’ec historian Juan Larrea. In their own ways, they both dedicated their lives to denouncing and mending the injustices of the native peoples of the region.
Funding
No specific funding sources are cited for this manuscript. The main author is supported by an internal doctoral scholarship from the National Commission of Science and Technology (CONICET), Argentina.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. GGJ performed the interviews, bibliography, and remote sensing analysis with LMdlC, CRV, and MLS also contributing. The first draft of the manuscript was written by GGJ and all authors commented on earlier versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no known conflicts of interest or competing interests.
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Consent to Participate
One of the authors (GGJ) made three fieldtrips to the Sombrero Negro community, in April and October 2018, and in July 2019. After explaining the purpose of the research and the methodologies to be employed to chiefs/leaders of the villages in the Sombrero Negro community, information sheets about the research were delivered that clearly explained the goals, methods, participation, confidentiality, duration, benefits, and contact with the researchers. Then, informed consent of each informant was obtained orally with a witness present, given that for current and historical socio-cultural and political reasons of these populations, the signing of documents has a negative connotation, while the word has more value (Braunstein 1993).
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
Summary for stakeholders of this manuscript in Spanish. (PDF 11.5 MB)
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Joosten, G.G., de la Cruz, L.M., Valeggia, C.R. et al. Wicked Environmental Problems in Bañado La Estrella: Floods and Water Pollution of the Pilcomayo Basin and their Impact on Indigenous and Rural Communities. Wetlands 43, 7 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01653-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01653-4