Broad technical and social consensus in defense of the Forest Law: organizations warn of setbacks in the reform for the conservation and development of the territory

In a special report, we reflect the position of seven organizations that presented their warnings to COFEMA: the Argentine Federation of Forestry Engineering (FAIF) regarding reducing protection for fire prevention, the Chaco Argentina Agroforestry Network, the Agroecological Movement of Latin America and the Caribbean regarding the impact it will have on rural producers and indigenous populations, the NGO Aves Argentinas, very critical of the serious legal setback that the modifications imply, the Peronist Forest Group (AFoPe) with a comprehensive look at the territory and the use of forests for local development, the Faculty of Forestry Sciences of the UNSE and the Graduate College of Forestry Sciences of Santiago del Estero, which show a high level of agreement on central aspects of the debate, in addition to providing technical and specific suggestions. The documents - which are part of more than 30 organizations that presented before COFEMA such as the AFoA - agree that the Forest Law was one of the most important institutional advances in Argentine environmental policy since the constitutional reform of 1994. Within this framework, they maintain that the current challenge is not to modify their regulatory architecture but to strengthen its application, improve financing and consolidate federal coordination between the Nation and provinces. For the organizations, protecting native forests does not constitute a sectoral or exclusively environmental position, but a structural condition for productive development, territorial stability and the international insertion of Argentina. Coincidences: main points in common to reject the modifications. The comparative analysis of the five documents allows us to identify a core of coincidences that structures the debate.1. Risk of environmental regressionThe organizations agree that the proposed modifications imply a reduction in the current standards of protection of native forests, which would come into tension with the principle of non-environmental regression provided for in the Argentine legal framework. This principle establishes that public policies should not reduce the levels of environmental protection already achieved, but rather sustain or expand them.2. Massive expansion of potentially clearable areas One of the most questioned points is the modification that would allow clearing in category II (yellow) of the territorial planning. According to the documents presented, this could expand the surface susceptible to change in land use from approximately 10 million hectares to nearly 42 million, which would imply that up to 80% of the countrys native forests would be exposed to productive transformations.3. Weakening of state controls Another aspect highlighted by all organizations is the elimination or reduction of prior administrative control mechanisms. Among the questioned modifications are: • the elimination of prior authorizations for certain clearings • the delegation of technical control to private professionals the suppression of the National Registry of Offenders According to specialists, these changes could generate conflicts of interest and reduce the States oversight capacity.4. Economic and commercial impactsThe organizations also agree that the debate is not exclusively environmental. The flexibilization of the regime could affect Argentinas international position in the face of markets that demand deforestation-free production chains, such as the new European regulation on commodities linked to land use change. In this context, they warn that a regulatory signal that expands clearing could generate competitiveness risks for export sectors.5. The problem is not the law, but its implementation. A point reiterated in the documents is that the main weaknesses of the forestry policy are not in the design of the law, but in its execution. Among the challenges mentioned are: • insufficient financing of the National Forest Fund • weaknesses in monitoring and control • institutional limitations in some jurisdictions For organizations, the priority should be to strengthen implementation and not reduce regulatory standards. The specific views of each organization Although they share a general diagnosis of the risks that changes to the Law of Native Forests of Argentina, each organization presented to the Federal Environmental Council (COFEMA) a particular analysis from its field of specialization, which ranges from forestry engineering and biodiversity to agroecology and environmental public policies. From the Argentine Federation of Forestry Engineering (FAIF), which brings together professionals from the countrys forestry sector, the central proposal aims to preserve the technical structure of the law regarding prevention. The entity maintains that the current regulations made it possible to establish clear rules for the territorial planning of native forests, a complex process which involved provinces, universities, scientific organizations and social actors. Among the main points of concern mentioned by the federation are: • the possibility of enabling clearing in areas classified as category II (yellow), which would modify the spirit of territorial planning; • the elimination or weakening of evaluation and prior administrative authorization instances; strategic, since it allows promoting sustainable forest management, restoration of degraded forests and development of regional economies linked to the responsible use of forest resources. Specialists emphasize that the current challenge is not to modify the legal scheme, but to strengthen its implementation and financing, particularly through the National Fund for the Enrichment and Conservation of Native Forests.