2023-06-24 03:56:00
Illegal clearing of Cordoba’s native forest advanced in 2022 at a slower rate than it had in 2021. But we are still far from “zero deforestation” and we don’t even know if last year’s record corroborates a trend.
For two consecutive years, 2019 and 2020, the official figures marked a stable annual loss of less than 5,000 hectares. But 2021 surprised with a clearing of more than 5,800 hectares. The 2022 balance showed some 4,500 hectares, which is similar to previous years.
It’s still a high number, of course. To be graphic, we might say that it is equivalent to the daily burning of regarding 12 blocks of any city.
Native forests are key to water and climate regulation. The environment belongs to everyone and it only makes our life possible if certain vital parameters are preserved from degradation. The mountain environment is the product of a combination of factors. There is a flora and a fauna, basically, that define it. Due to clearing, urbanization, fires and the entry of invasive species, this ecosystem is slowly but inexorably unbalanced.
Provincial Law 9,814, on the territorial ordering of native forests, established three categories, according to their degree of protection: red, yellow and green. The best-preserved ecosystems were painted in red, where few interventions authorized by the Province’s Environment Secretariat can be carried out.
As is logical, the Environmental Police focuses especially on the red sectors, because they are the best preserved ecosystems. In them, in any case, during 2022 some 2,000 hectares were cleared. Almost half of the total. The rest was almost all in yellow zones.
The authorities understand that the lower clearing can be explained by three reasons. The first of these would be a greater presence of the Environmental Police in the most affected areas. In fact, a certain natural recovery process has been observed in some places where illegal clearing had been detected.
The second reason would be the drought. As the lack of rain discouraged investment in crops, interest in expanding land for agriculture decreased. And the third might be that certain rolling tasks, which are carried out on agricultural land, are not implemented every year.
No favorable expectations can be drawn from the official analysis for this year or the next. It is undeniable that the Environmental Police does an important task, but the territory to guard is very wide. If private companies once once more find a favorable climate for crops, why wouldn’t they try clearing some area once more?
An unofficial calculation indicates that between 2001 and 2019 almost 170,000 hectares of forest cover were lost. Official monitoring recognizes the loss of more than 48,000 hectares only since 2016.
If the Cordovan native forest has been disappearing for decades, it is because we have not fully accepted how clearing negatively impacts our environment and, therefore, our quality of life.
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