Summary
On November 7 and 8, 2024, the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature visited and held its 13th local session in the province of Corrientes (Argentina) in response to a complaint by the local organization Defensores del Pastizal about the negative social and environmental impacts of the forest monoculture model.
The Tribunal is giving regional treatment to the problem of the forest model. On January 12 and 13, 2023, the 11th local Tribunal on the Rights of Nature was held, focusing on the forest model in the Biobío region, Chile, and the forest fires associated with this commercial scheme. During the Tribunal, the devastating impacts of eucalyptus and pine monocultures in the region were noted, which not only eliminate the biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems, but also contribute to the spread of catastrophic forest fires. These fires razed more than 45,000 hectares. Similar models are replicated in Argentina, particularly in the Corrientes region.
On November 7, the Court visited the affected ecosystems and territories and the Corrientes communities that inhabit them, in order to verify potential violations of the Rights of Nature and its defenders.
During the public hearing on November 8 (in the Espacio Mariño in the capital of Corrientes), specialists on the subject and directly affected residents gave their testimony on the ecological and social consequences of this extractive production model.
For decades, the Argentine government has been strategically promoting the development of the forestry industry in its provinces.
The logic behind this strategy is the observation of the rapid growth rate of exotic wood species in the Argentine Mesopotamia. Growing wood quickly for export, mostly to Europe, is an attractive economic activity due to its easy profits and efficiency. This forestry industry is mostly focused on monocultures of exotic species such as pines and eucalyptus. In 1998, Argentina’s Law on Investments for Cultivated Forests No. 25,080 meant a first step towards the intensification of the cultivation of these species. Several laws followed and the creation of the Forestry Competitiveness Roundtable in 2017 accelerated this forestry policy even further.
Over the years, voices have been raised against these policies that the Government presents as supposed policies of economic and social development and mitigation of climate change. Criticism from several groups of farmers and socio-environmentalists focuses on the fact that these monocultures are not forests as they are promoted, but rather more like green deserts, causing significant environmental and social impacts. In recent years, these criticisms have become even stronger due to the massive fires that have occurred in the region and that are linked to this forestry model. It was analyzed that these monocultures favor the instigation and spread of fires due to excessive use of water (the deep roots of the trees take advantage of much of the groundwater and much of the water is used for irrigation), the production of flammable substances and materials (leaves on the ground that do not disintegrate easily, pine resin) and the impoverishment of the soil and the resilience of the ecosystem.
The province of Corrientes, in the northeast of Argentina, spans 88,199 square kilometers and has incredible ecological wealth due to its numerous bodies of water and its enormous biodiversity, which gave it the title of a protected site under the Ramsar Convention. The region is known for its millions of hectares of grasslands and wetlands.
The economic activities of the region focus on industrial agriculture and livestock. With state policies on the forest industry, many of the grasslands and lands of local towns have been converted into spaces for eucalyptus and pine monocultures. The organization Defenders of the Pasture speaks of “a transitional process from extensive livestock farming, which under a certain type of management manages to maintain the natural ecosystem, to forest monoculture that modifies 100% of the environment, turning into a green desert for native fauna, leading to its extinction.”
Many laws have been passed to boost the wood and paper industry, resulting in the fact that in 2018, monocultures and native forests in the region were of the same surface area. Some of these significant steps were the Corrientes Pact for Economic Growth and Social Development of 2013, the creation of the Santa Rosa Forest-Industrial Park in 2017 and the sanction of provincial law n°6496 which declares the development of the paper and cellulose industry to be of provincial interest, facilitating the foreignization of land. In 2020, the promotion of a massive sawmill with the multinational HS Timber Group and other pine resin extraction projects began. All this happened in a context of more laws to facilitate the sale of land, a drought phenomenon due to poor water management, and these same increasingly massive and brutal forest fires and a systematic lack of effective measures to stop them. In the summer of 2023, more than 100,000 hectares were devastated by fire, triggering a vicious cycle of even more drought and destruction without any political responsibility taken.