Search

In 2020, the Sierras of Córdoba suffered the most extreme fire season in recent collective memory, causing severe ecological and socioeconomic damage. In this study, we mapped the fires of 2020 using Sentinel 2 imagery, we compared the season with historical statistics from 1987-2019 in terms of number of fires, burned area, fire size distribution and fire frequency. Additionally, we analyzed fire incidence in areas of ecological value (protected natural areas [PNA], priority areas for biodiversity conservation [CPA] and native forests protected by Federal Law [#26331/07]) and in areas of socioeconomic value (productive and residential lands, considering their tax value). In 2020, nearly 291866 ha burned in the Sierras of Córdoba --becoming the fire season with the second largest burned area in 34 years--, with a record of 5 megafires (≥10000 ha). Many burned areas had fire return intervals from 3 to 9 years on average, constituting as hotspot regions of fire in our study area. Flames affected more than 5% of PNA, 12% of CPA and 12% of forests protected by federal law. Fires affected mainly the rural areas, and to a lesser extent, urban lands with tax values of AR$8677 and 24592 million, respectively. Extreme drought and fuel availability were determinants for the occurrence of megafires, while the pandemic lockdown suggests that fires were not set by negligent urban inhabitants. The damages caused by the 2020 megafires and the possibility of similar scenarios in the future require policies towards an integral management of the fire issue in Córdoba province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general objective of this study was to provide information regarding the productivity and site quality of Palo Santo forests in their Argentinean distribution area in order to establish guidelines for sustainable management and use. We used data taken from 482 plots as part of national, regional and local forest inventories in northern Argentina, carried out in native forests within aboriginal and peasant community tenures and management plans. Basal area, stem volume and dominant height of Palo Santo trees were used to determine site quality class. This was correlated to forest structure by using a classification mosaic from Landsat satellite images. A sustainable cutting cycle duration and harvest intensity for Palo Santo forests were calculated according to their site quality. The results suggest that the current stocks of Palo Santo are sufficient to continue with its sustainable use without compromising its longterm availability. This information is useful for decision makers and defines the potential of the species to provide resources to regional economies and provincial productive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The talares represent the main native forest of the Buenos Aires province; however, they are in danger. Given their extreme vulnerability, it is not only necessary to promote their conservation, but also their restoration. The native plant nurseries represent a key link in restoration projects. In this work, the first survey of native plant nurseries in the distribution area of talares of Buenos Aires was carried out to characterize and evaluate them as possible restoration nodes. During 2019, surveys to these nurseries were carried out either in person or online. More than 70% of the nurseries were concentrated in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and their objectives comprise commercialization, conservation/restoration or education. More than 60% of the nurseries were less than 5 years old and less than 500 m2 in size, and they do not control humidity, temperature and/or light; however, they have greenhouses. These characteristics seem to reflect an increase in society's interest on native plants in recent years, which would have led to the development of new nurseries at small scale. The main plant species of the talares were cultivated in these nurseries, so they could be very important actors when planning restoration projects of these forests. We emphasize the importance of consolidating a network of collaboration between nurseries, scientists, protected areas, and government agencies in order to restore this ecosystem. In this way, it is necessary to expand the scope of this study in order to know the native plant nurseries in the rest of the country, associated with other endangered ecosystems, and to be able to evaluate if Argentina is in a position to meet its internal goals and international restoration commitments. We hope that the results of this work will promote joint collaborations to restore the talares of Buenos Aires and other ecosystems in Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the several collective narratives developed by participants of the social and environmental struggles, in response to the many ecological disasters that plagued Argentina in the last decade. These adversities have resulted in around 95.000 persons being displaced during the same period. Quantitative data was gathered by means of an active participant observation methodology. Additionally, legislation and social media posts were also inspected. The present study provides evidence that the advance of colonialist development plans has resulted in a sustained clearing of forests, fumigation and extermination of minority peoples and social groups. The actions of the powerful power networks behind these current colonialist practices are visualized and the high environmental impact of their territorialization practices is illuminated (particularly in the province of Cordoba). Resistance against the above process in the Gran Chaco and Espinal ecoregions is researched as a case of emancipatory social action. Likewise, it becomes evident how the State has criminalized these struggles in its attempts to break down the social coalitions built by the assemblies and social movements, involved in building a collective counter hegemony. Finally, the conclusion is reached that the defense of forests and life, as driven by the socio environmental assemblies is progressively uprooting agribusiness, large scale metallic mining, quarries and real estate development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política is the property of Instituto de Ciencia Politica (Universidad de la Republica de Uruguay) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Until now, the Southern Yungas forests have been managed only to provide wood from a few economically valuable tree species. Successive reentries without considering the time needed for the ecosystem to recover led to a degradation and simplification of great proportion of the Southern Yungas, making these forests more susceptible to transformation to other land-uses. For this reason, an early adoption of guidelines for sustainable forest management, including the wide range of values that these forests provide (e.g., biodiversity and ecosystem services), is needed. Currently, guidelines to attain a sustainable yield of wood and decrease the negative effects of logging are available, and also a great amount of information has been developed to start delineating sustainable forest management guidelines for other values of the Southern Yungas forest. However, these guidelines have been mainly ignored in the Southern Yungas due to, in our opinion, primarily, a lack of a socio-economic and political scenario framed in a long-term forest policy is set. It is necessary to provide economic compensations that promote land-owners to shift to sustainable forest management activities. An alternative should be to recognize and pay for the diverse ecosystem services that the Southern Yungas provide. To implement sustainable forest management guidelines will ensure that these forests continue providing multiple goods and services that benefit local stakeholders which depend on the Southern Yungas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of new tree species in forest ecosystems promotes changes in stand dynamics that are reflected by forest structure. These processes are particularly relevant in native forests conservation. Tala (Celtis ehrenbergiana var. ehrenbergiana) and coronillo (Scutia buxifolia) forests are considered among the main forest communities of Buenos Aires province, in Argentina, and are included in several protected areas. In the El Destino Reserve, a very well conserved native forest is currently in the presence of Ligustrum lucidum, which has demonstrated a high invasive potential in other forest of Argentina and the world. The aim of this work was to characterize present structure of these stands and to infer changes in the dynamics promoted by the presence of L. lucidum. We found that these talares are currently dominated by L. lucidum in tree density (93%) and basal area (80%), and that native forest structure has departed from the characteristic values. Around 80% of native trees are dead, widely surpassing the 20% reported natural mortality, and dead tree density is positively associated with L. lucidum density. The exotic species initially established in a non-selective and spatially random pa'ern and reached current canopy dominance by rapidly exceeding native species total height. Present conditions were reached approximately in 20-25 years, which indicate a high rate of structural change. These results demonstrate these talares have profoundly changed and, considering the degree of modification, could be treated as new ecological systems, either novel or hybrid ecosystems. Whichever the approach, the control of L. lucidum and the active restoration of the native component, as well as the eradication of the exotic species in areas where establishment is still recent, are all of high priority in order to ensure the long-term conservation of these forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our country, ecologists are increasingly called to play a more active role in natural resource management and in rural ecosystem and landscape planning. The effectiveness of management and planning depends to a large extent on the ability to transform the human behaviors that most influence the state of ecosystems and landscapes. Therefore, the capacity of research processes and results in ecology to transform the reality of territories can be enhanced by its integration with conceptual and methodological elements of the human behavioral sciences. In the territory, changes in land use and land cover are the result of a multiplicity of decisions made by those individuals that affect and benefit from ecosystems, mostly farmers. This paper reviews theories, concepts, methods and applications of social psychology to make visible and discuss their real and potential contributions to the research and management of rural ecosystems and landscapes subject to transformation by agriculture, which are illustrated by studies in the Argentine Dry Chaco. The Theory of Planned Behavior proved to be a conceptual and analytical model of great synoptic value to understand the endogenous motivational factors that influence the formation of intentions to conserve remnant forests by agricultural producers. The social valuation of ecosystem services made it possible to observe the diversity of identities and valuation profiles that coexist in the territory. Finally, overlapping trade-off and indifference curves proved to be a simple and powerful tool for linking ecological and preference trade-offs, and for identifying barriers and opportunities for farmers to transition to land use systems that are both biophysically efficient and socially acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native forests' destruction is an important environmental question that has recently accelerated not only at world scale but also in Argentina, a country where it has assumed particularly serious and disturbing features. On the basis of official, historical statistics, this paper characterizes the growth of deforestation in Argentina throughout the 1998-2016 period and studies the advance of illegal logging after the enforcement of the National Forests Law by analyzing both phenomena at the provincial and departmental scale. The findings show that almost 7 million hectares of native forests were destroyed during the analyzed period, while the annual rates of deforestation of several provinces largely exceeded the international average. In addition, due to the Nation Forests Law's ineffectiveness, clandestine deforestation has become a widespread matter throughout the whole country, especially in provinces such as Santiago del Estero, Salta, Chaco, and Formosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Luna Azul is the property of Universidad de Caldas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista SAAP is the property of Sociedad Argentina de Analisis Politico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Worldwide, the forest industry faces sustainability challenges that have not been adequately addressed by traditional governance instruments. It is necessary to deepen understanding, from a social sciences standpoint, of the sustainability issues faced by the Chilean forest sector and how -- within that context -- forest certification arose and evolved. The empirical research reported in this paper sampled 11 plantation forestry and 8 native forestry businesses, and conducted semi-structured interviews of 72 forest industry and forest governance stakeholders in 2013-2014. Results indicated that large plantation forestry businesses, whilst the most economically successful, experienced the largest gaps in environmental and social sustainability -- given their covered area. In contrast, native forest owners and small and medium-sized plantation forestry businesses had fewer environmental and social issues, but they were also less economically successful. Due to the perception of international markets and some key stakeholders that traditional state governance was not adequately addressing these sustainability issues, FSC certification arose as an alternative governance mechanism. FSC certification was initially strongly resisted by the large-scale plantation forestry industry, which, with the assistance of the Chilean government, developed a competing national certification scheme: CERTFOR. More recently, major plantation forestry businesses have also adopted FSC certification. It is evident from the research that regulatory changes in plantation forestry, to set clear and equitable rules for all the actors, would enhance achievement of environmental and social sustainability objectives; and that a more appropriate incentive program is necessary to encourage the sustainable management of native forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native and invaded secondary forests are present in sierra de San Javier, the latter dominated by Ligustrum lucidum, which exerts an influence on native biodiversity. We analyzed the influence of the forest dominated by L. lucidum over liana communities compared to native secondary forests without dominance of exotic species. Forests were compared in abundance, composition, climbing mechanisms and distribution in size classes of liana stems. For this, liana stems ⩾ 0.5 cm and the trees ⩾ 10 cm in diameter at height breast, were measured, identified and surveyed in 10 plots located in the yungas piedmont of sierra de San Javier. Native forests had four times more abundance and richness of liana stems than invaded forest of L. lucidum. Individual trees of L. lucidum hosted liana stems in very low abundance, and in the forest dominated by this exotic species, the liana hosts were mainly native trees. Besides the fact that they do not constitute suitable hosts for lianas, they have an indirect influence through the exclusion of native host trees of lianas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mundo Agrario is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)