Images of deforestation in the Chaco (Photo: Greenpeace)
Environmental groups have sent a letter to the Environment Secretary reporting abuses of the Ley de Bosques, or Forest Law, in the provinces of Salta and Neuquén. The Foundation for Environment and Natural Resources (FARN), Greenpeace, and Vida Silvestre have said that the provinces have violated the categorising established in the Territorial Survey of Native Forests, laid out under the law.
The province of Salta has recategorised more than 125,000 hectares of native forests which were initially marked in Categories I (red) and II (yellow). As such the forests, which should be protected under Categories I and II, can now be legally cleared.
In Neuquén, the municipality of Villa La Angostura also recently proposed that rezoning of an area originally classed as Category II to Categories III (green) or ‘white’ (without forests), increasing the area allowed to be deforested from 2,000 to 5,000 hectares. If the Executive branch approves this request, 80% of the forests in the area will be unprotected, something that will allow the clearing of huge areas to make way for high-end real estate projects, which, according the the environmental groups, are “strongly rejected” by the majority of locals.
The Ley de Bosques was passed at the end of 2007 in response to the drastic levels of deforestation in the country, where over 70% of the country’s original forest areas have been cleared. It requires that all forests and woodland be categorised into one of four categories, a traffic-light system to guarantee different levels or protest to native forests. Areas categorised as I (red), are not allowed to be touched, II (yellow), can see selective logging, III (green) are legally allowed to be cleared, and ‘white’ indicate that the land is not forested.
The application of the law falls on the shoulders of the national government, under article 124 of the constitution. As such, systematic provincial recategorising of forests and woodlands constitutes a grave violation of the law, and any such attempts to recategorise must have government approval.
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