Keywords

1 Introduction

The media and a growing body of detailed research from Latin American rural and cultural studies on environmental conflicts have placed natural assets, land and territorial management at the centre of public discussions on natural resource development and preservation (Svampa, 2019). This trend is also complemented by a growing body of natural science literature on biodiversity, the protection and recovery of native species, particularly native forests (Cabrol & Cáceres, 2017; Godoy et al., 2019; Grosfeld et al., 2019). An issue that has received less attention is the relationship between land conflicts and the forms of territorial distribution and the management of protected areas such as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

This article aims to address conflicts over land use, and territorial and natural resource management in Latin America in relation to one of the protected areas in the Argentinean Patagonia, Los Alerces National Park (PNLA), inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2017.Footnote 1 I argue that the changes driven by the commodity boom (2000–2014), i.e., the large-scale export of commodities such as grains, agro-industrial products and minerals, had and have a high environmental impact. This impact is especially visible in the accelerated clearing of native forests and the expansion of monocultures and hydrocarbon activities, which has unleashed the resistance of the local population affected by these processes. From the 2000s onwards, the continent has experienced a series of protests that made public the destructive impact of large-scale development projects (Gras & Hernández, 2013), indirectly including areas protected as part of humanity’s cultural and natural heritage (Lozano, 2017, 205–211).

The article focuses primarily on conflicts caused by large- and small-scale extractive activities and the commodification of natural resources – water and forests – that affect Los Alerces Nacional Park and its buffer zones. Secondly, it addresses the parks management proposals aimed at protecting the integrity of the native forest and promoting a sustainable agro-silvo-pastoral culture, based on technical innovation and community participation.

1.1 Conflictive Projects and Traditions

If the conflicts associated with the expansion of the plantation and mining economy on a global scale were historically related to the claims of indigenous peoples, i.e., peasant communities and organisations asserting their territorial rights, this situation of particularism and exceptionality has changed.Footnote 2 Since the 1990s, demands related to limiting land grabbing, stopping open-pit mining and forest clearance and protecting native species have included other population groups, scientist, activists and entrepreneurs and their organisations. The expansion of the social and cognitive base and the plurality of values made it possible to promote and articulate legislative changes at provincial, national and transnational levels. These changes to the legislation refer, among other things, to territorial reorganisation policies, which expanded protected areas, national parks and nature reserves.Footnote 3 The Nomination document (State Party of Argentina & Ministry of Tourism, 2017, 80) highlights the existence of “conflicting projects” involving possible mining exploitation. Although the declaration of the region as part of the Andean-North Patagonian Biosphere Reserve since 2007 and a decree of the Argentinian Province of Chubut made it impossible to initiate open-pit mining megaprojects throughout the province, such projects periodically re-emerge on public agendas.Footnote 4

This process took place throughout the continent and acquired peculiar characteristics in Argentina. Geographer Reboratti (2019,2) considers that certain characteristics of Argentina, such as the size of its territory, the richness and diversity of its natural resources and a relatively small and mainly urban population, explain the late emergence of socio-environmental conflicts. Similarly, the ecological awareness of local actors,Footnote 5 who until recently were excluded or self-excluded from negotiations and the distribution of responsibilities, costs and benefits of extractive activities, is a recent development. This is why the large infrastructure projects of the 1960s with potential impacts on the environment remained unopposed and were hardly discussed at local and national levels until the 1990s.Footnote 6

Argentina thus becomes a particularly relevant context in which to explore the interconnections between traditional and contemporary extractive activities, the inscription of a conservation area as a Natural World Heritage Site in 2017, in this case, the PNLA, and compliance with the protection and management requirements of the site and its buffer zones set by UNESCO. Compliance with the requirements is of fundamental importance because the appropriate technical management of agro-forestry and livestock activities on the edges of its buffer zones generate the basis for the integrity of the natural landscape, as well as for sustainable regional development in a region with a growing population (IUCN, 2017, 84; Godoy et al., 2019, 480).

Specifically, protected areas are conceptualised in the sense given to them by Mendoza (2018, 11), i.e., as a space under the strict control of National Parks, while family members living in the villages and private owners engaging in livestock, forestry, agriculture and tourism activities at different scales exercise subsidiary control over the park’s tangible and intangible resources. The Park Service guards and monitors the territory and earns income from permit and entrance fees. The hydropower company, private landowners and tourism agents located in the buffer zones extract raw materials, transform them into products for human and animal consumption (pasture and firewood) and into material goods (energy, meat and timber) and immaterial goods (landscapes and enjoyment of nature) for the market.Footnote 7

The following sections address the aforementioned conflicting projects, i.e., the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, traditional agropastoral activities and forest fires, in terms of threats to the integrity and potential fragmentation of the natural landscape. Subsequently, proposals for land use and sustainable forest management of the site’s buffer zone are examined, highlighting its socio-economic potential as well as its technical and administrative constraints along two lines: First, the articulation between the demands of different social actors and the institutions and organisations involved in the containment of ecological and social risk situations. Secondly, territorial planning and the promotion of socio-productive strategies within the framework of the conservation and sustainability objectives of the protected area are also addressed.Footnote 8

2 Integrity Protection

2.1 The Water

Los Alerces National Park is part of Argentina’s National System of Protected Areas, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Administration (APN). APN is a legally established autonomous body. The proposed site is a “National Protected Area” according to National Law 22.351 of 1980, established with legal objectives focused on “protection and conservation” as well as “scientific research, education and enjoyment of present and future generations” (IUCN, 2017, 79).

In 1971, the two protected areas of the PNLA and the Nature Reserve or buffer zone had their boundaries and areas redefined by Law No. 19,292 (see Fig. 31.1). According to the evaluation report, the site contains the largest, most-intact and least-degraded Valdivian Temperate Rainforest in Argentina. These conditions affirm its Outstanding Universal Value. The report also states that it is possible to expand the site to other areas of Argentina and Chile. This requires the technical elaboration of not only the factors that prevent the reduction of the forest mass, such as appropriate fire management and forestation on the edges of the buffer zone, but also changes in the economic, social and cultural matrix related to the forest and aquifer system (glaciers, lakes and rivers) as sources of natural resources and suppliers of raw materials and energy (IUCN, 2017, 79).

Fig. 31.1
A map demarcates the areas of administration of different places. There is a legend at the bottom left.

Map: Administración de Parques Nacionales. (2017). Categorías de Conservación del bien propuesto Parque Nacional Los Alerces – Argentina. (Note. The information on the map comes from topographic planchettes of the Military Geographic Institute (IGM); Satellite Images provided by the Argentina National Space Activities Commission (CONAE), and National Park Administration (APN). Argentine Projection Posgar Faja 1 WGS 84 Reference System [Map] by IGM, CONAE, & APN. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1526/multiple=1&unique_number=2172)

Full size image

Despite its remoteness and the history of forest conservation that form the basis of its exceptional value, northern Patagonia was the scene of technical and economic progress and development linked to hydrocarbon extraction in the 1960s and the construction of three nuclear power stations and the Futaleufú hydroelectric power station inaugurated in 1978. The construction of the Futaleufú hydroelectric dam caused changes in the original lake system, altering the natural landscape of a considerable area of Los Alerces National Park. The construction of the dam, however, did not trigger lawsuits regarding the environmental impact assessment of the work within a territorial space protected, among other reasons, for its “impressive scenic beauty” (IUCN, 2017, 84).

The indifference to the environmental impact and the use of available resources within protected areas took a radical turn from the 1990s onwards. In 1993, Argentina enacted Law 24.196 on the Promotion of Mining Activities, which granted advantages to companies engaged in prospecting and the development of mineral extraction. The law encouraged the expansion of such activities, and the resulting environmental impact gave rise to a series of conflicts. Reboratti (2012, 8, 9) highlights the particularity of the first of these, which originated in 2002 in the city of Esquel as a result of the establishment of a mining company and the environmental impact of its activity. The conflict highlighted the opposed visions of the company and the residents regarding water use, pollution, noise, employment and the distribution of economic benefits. The public presentation of the environmental impact study led local people to gather in public assemblies to demand that the authorities halt the project until a legal body regulating the activity was in place. As the region is particularly valued for its exceptional natural beauty and as a tourist attraction, the local population began to take any potential threat to nature seriously. The conflict and its resolution brought to the fore socially conscious and honest actors’ doubts and mistrust of formal political organisations in relation to the uses of nature and the pursuit of environmental justice (Reboratti, 2012 8, 9).

The residents’ demands gained the support of local indigenous people, the Mapuche, and national environmental organisations formed by a network of conservation activists who, thanks to the targeted use of social media, expanded a local conflict to a national scale.Footnote 9 The public dispute led to a call for a non-binding referendum by the Municipality for the resident population of Esquel. The result of the referendum showed that more than 80% of voters did not agree with the establishment of the mine.

The support network that integrated institutions dedicated to independent scientific research and technical assistance was just as important as the use of social networks and the resonance that the demands of the local assemblies found in environmental organisations. These contributed to the production of knowledge about the socio-ecological impact of profit-making projects, as well as conflicts over socio-ecological institutionality and the regulation of forest use in the site’s buffer zones, to which we will return later.

In summary, the social processing of the confrontation unleashed by the conflict-generating mining projects led to the banning of open-pit mining in the province. In a similar vein, UNESCO’s Technical Evaluation requires the State Party to strictly monitor activities linked to the Futaleufú dam, the reservoir and its associated infrastructure to avoid or mitigate adverse effects on the site’s Outstanding Universal Value, and ensure that the maintenance and improvement plan is subject to prior environmental and social impact assessment (IUCN, 2017, 85).

2.2 The Forest

If mining projects have proved to be conflictive, the high rate of deforestation in Argentina also affects the native species that make up the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest. Illegal logging, forest fires and technically inadequate grazing management in the buffer and transition zones of the PNLA form part of a historical process of degradation of the native flora.

In 2007, National Congress passed Law 26.331 on Minimum Standards for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests. One problem with the application of this law is that the 1994 National Constitution grants limited competence to national authorities in environmental matters. The national authorities can establish a “minimum conservation threshold that the provinces must comply with, but it is up to the provinces to design and effectively implement environmental policies” (Langbehn, 2016, 141; IUCN, 2017, 79). These differences in competences prevent a homogeneous application of legislation across the national territory.Footnote 10 Official sources from the Directorate of Forestry in the province of Chubut, where the North Patagonian Andean Forest is located, state that its surface area has remained stable (Gómez Lende, 2018, 161).

Since 2015, the Argentine Association of Ecology has been conducting a debate on the possibility of achieving sustainable development of the Andean-North Patagonian Forest. Soler and Gowda (2019, 119) point out that the practical application of what the FAO defines as sustainable forest management, “the sustainable use and conservation of forests in order to maintain and enhance their multiple values through human intervention”, is a difficult task. Forests support diverse activities, ranging from extensive cattle ranching, timber extraction, tourist recreation, conservation, real estate speculation and urban development. There are many examples of economic activities linked to forests, and the management of forests is deficient and does not tend to maintain and increase their value.

A considerable body of knowledge of the biology and ecology of the plant communities that make up forests and their response to different forms of management provides a solid basis for sustainable native forest management. However, the lack of communication and trust between the institutional academic sector and rural producers, who today depend on livestock as their main source of income, conditions the development of good management practices. Increased funding to generate an applied knowledge base and updating the 1984 Forestry Regulation according to Law 26.331 of 2007 are vital for promoting virtuous forest management among rural producers (Grosfeld et al., 2019, 158).

Another central problem is related to the distribution of territory within the park and the reserve. The authorities did not offer relocation plans from the buffer zones to the transition areas of the Biosphere Reserve to all the inhabitants of the protected areas. To reverse this situation, the Management Plan 2020–2029 includes not only relocations but also the development of training projects in the management of a combination of productive activities, forestry, tourism, livestock and small-scale agriculture. The implementation of the projects will be carried out with the advice of regional technical assistance institutions. This is intended to contribute to the transition from traditional agroforestry management, based on outdated standards, to sustainable management.

As previously emphasised, the region has scientific research centres, technical assistance and a university in Esquel. These constitute a platform that promotes and sustains processes of productive, economic and social change based on the redesign and monitoring of productive activities associated with the forest. The configuration of a new production and commercialisation arrangement would allow scaling up through the appropriate technical management of the native forest in the buffer and transition zones surrounding the site.Footnote 11

Soler and Gowda’s (2019, 120) point about “ecological experiments” as a basis for new learning in the buffer and transition zones of the PNLA is relevant not only for ecologists but for all public and private actors involved in the conflicting interests. Its relevance arises from the contrast with the historical experience of the degrading impact of a deeply rooted traditional extractive economy, whose socio-ecological effects are outside the thresholds of contemporary sustainability. In the face of this, various research and technical assistance agencies are opening up a new perspective based on the healthy management of conflicts associated with common problems, the most hostile manifestation of which is anthropogenic forest fire ignitions.

2.3 Forest Fires and Conflict Management

One of the main motivations for the creation of Los Alerces National Park in 1937 was to eliminate anthropogenic fires. However, this intervention also led to the arrival of personnel from the National Parks Administration, as well as a public administration that has been expanding ever since. The growing social and cultural differentiation pits those in favour of the continuation of traditional extractive activities and families dedicated to cattle ranching in the buffer zones against those who, from a conservationist and recreational perspective, are against all extractive activities, including National Parks staff, eco-tourists and members of the Fishermen’s Club. According to the literature on fire prevention, the existence of divergent value frameworks would explain the increase in forest fires (Defossé et al., 2015; Seijo et al., 2020).

In line with this explanation, forest fire prevention should be associated with the resolution of conflicts related to incompatible value frameworks, which are the basis of the increase in fires. Stakeholder participation in the design of preventive fuel management strategies through prescribed burning would mitigate the size and intensity of individual fire events, bringing the parties together towards a common goal.

The conflicts arising from human occupations and activities affecting the PNLA also call for research on the relationship between the National Parks Administration and the creole and indigenous, Mapuche, communities that reside, occupy and/or develop productive and commercial activities in the buffer zones. Such studies would make it possible to elaborate and define methods of awareness-raising, distribution of responsibilities and participation of local actors in the conservation of wildlife species of special value or cultural resources in accordance with the sustainability goals (8 and 15) set by UNESCO. These challenges are not only related to the ecological impacts of traditional natural resource management by communities and peoples today but also concern the technical and administrative management of the PNLA and its buffer zones. The proposal of a new agro-forest-pastoral culture whose objective goes beyond the extinction of individual fires becomes important for the future, attending to forms of joint management and administration that combine the transmission and reinvention of traditions in accordance with contemporary sustainability goals. This will connect the preservation of a unique forest ecosystem with the expansion of protected conservation areas (Nomination Document) to other places, e.g., the Patagonian steppe, in an ecological experiment based on technical and institutional innovation and community participation (Rusch et al., 2017).

The recommendations for bridging the gap between theory and practice identified from the detailed study of the available literature on the PNLA cannot simply be applied to the management of all conflicts associated with extractive activities in protected native forests in Latin America. The formulation of recommendations requires the development of detailed research projects related to the scientific and technical conditions available in each case and their particular way of conceptualising the problems arising from extractive practices.

3 Concluding Remarks

The starting point of this article was the problem of the destructiveness of regional development policies based on extractive activities whose input–output matrix does not consider criteria of landscape conservation and biodiversity protection or sustainable development. The article also showed that the extractivist basis of the productive activities that historically facilitated Latin America’s incorporation into the world market, such as logging, large-scale mining and hydrocarbon projects, was recognised as a threat, in this case, to the Valdivian temperate forest (extractivism and anthropic ignitions), by natural scientists and conservationists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Studies highlighting the destructive aspects of productive development based on extractive activities justified the nation state’s decision to create nature reserves and national parks.

Towards the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the degradation of nature worsened. In response to this, environmental activist organisations and the local population directly affected by conflict-generating projects demanded that the state update the legislation regulating the use of the territory and the available tangible and intangible assets.

The updating of the legislation created the legal framework for the nomination of the PNLA. Institutions dedicated to scientific research and technical assistance contributed to the creation of databases, documentary archives, reports and analytical articles on the current state of the reserves, parks and sites in the Andean-North Patagonian region. They also generated an ongoing debate that supports the formulation of the Management Plan for the nominated site and its buffer zones. This is based on the reconciliation of conservation and nature protection criteria with the development of productive activities within contemporary sustainability thresholds.

Indeed, it is not a question of ignoring the traditional agro-silvo-pastoral activities that persist in both the buffer and transition zones of the site, but of redirecting them within the framework of a new input–output matrix based on concepts of native forest restoration and economic and social sustainability. The challenge, beyond the introduction of scientific research and technical innovation in forest management, is to create a culture based on responsibility. The strengthening of technical and cultural innovation justifies the expansion of the heritage area to protect the exceptional nature of the Valdivian temperate forest in Argentinean and Chilean Patagonia, as is clear from the PNLA Nomination document.