Standing Tree Association*
From 2015 onwards, all logging authorizations issued by the Provincial State were once morest the norm.
We all know or at least have heard of the Forest Law and we have assumed that, sadly, it is one thing to have a law and another to apply it. We know that there are maps with different degrees of protection, which are popularly divided into three colors: green, yellow and red. However, there are “details” that are generally ignored by the public. Over the years, since 2010 when the law was enacted in Río Negro, the violation of this legal norm has been deepening, the impunity with which the provincial governments have managed has become more and more obvious, and their non-compliance is no longer concealed.
The first map for the protection of native forests was drawn up in 2010, without consulting the public and technical and scientific organizations with responsibility in the matter. There we found out that on the San Pedro peninsula or on the slopes of Cerro Bella Vista, for example, there are no forests, as they were blank on the map.
Of course, the law mandated updating it, towards a higher level of protection, in 2012, 2015 and 2020, which we are still waiting for.
Authorizations contrary to the law
The curious thing regarding this is that the National Forest Law prohibits any use of native forest following 5 years of the first ordering (2010 forest map) if it is not updated, which it never was.
That is, from 2015 onwards, all logging authorizations issued by the Provincial State were violating the law. The Federal Environmental Council (COFEMA) confirmed this in its resolution 236/12.
Not satisfied with this, the Undersecretary of Forest Resources, Fernando Arbat, has just authorized a clearing in an area with degree of protection II (yellow), which is expressly prohibited by both national and provincial laws. Obviously, this warranted several colleagues from different organizations criminally denouncing the official.
So, the law is good but it is not enough.
Only the participation and involvement of all can stop these people and what is more important, try to stop the climate disaster that is already upon us.
Deforestation
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) placed Argentina among the ten countries that cleared the most between 1990 and 2015, when 7.6 million were lost of hectaresat a rate of 300,000 hectares per year.
Today, the world’s forests absorb 25 to 30 percent of the planet-warming CO2 that humanity dumps into the atmosphere.
However, last year 38,000 square kilometers of forest were lost, the equivalent of a football field every six seconds, according to data from Global Forest Watch.
We are putting the noose around our neck. Drought threatens, like a boomerang, the one who produces it.
Approximately 117,600 cubic kilometers of water falls to earth in the form of precipitation each year. More than 30% of this amount comes from the transpiration of plants and trees. In addition, this transpiration when ascending creates low pressure centers below that end up attracting humid winds from the ocean. The opposite also happens, desertification, increase in average temperature, forest fires that release thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
It is not too late, let’s act to stop those who threaten our future.
* Civil Association, Bariloche.
