Completed campaign
Argentina: Stop the Chaco forest chainsaw massacre!
During his election campaign, Argentina’s President Milei brandished a chainsaw to symbolize his plans to cut the state down to size. Now the legislature of Chaco province has taken Milei’s chainsaw message literally, passing a law that removes protection for hundreds of thousands of hectares of Chaco forest.
News and updatesTo: the government of the province of Chaco; the Argentinian Supreme Court
“The Chaco in Argentina, one of the most threatened forest areas in the world, must be protected.”The biodiverse dry forests of the Chaco are the second largest forest area in South America after the Amazon. The ecoregion stretches from northern Argentina to neighboring Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay.
But the Chaco is under severe threat: vast areas of forest are being cleared for soy monocultures, cattle ranching, charcoal and tanning agents.
In a late-night vote, legislators in the Argentinian province of Chaco have now rolled back the protection of large parts of the Chaco forest, legalizing the deforestation of hundreds of thousands of hectares.
To this end, an irregular procedure was used to modify the map of the Territorial Regulation of Forests (OTBN) and the protected areas established therein under the Argentinian Forestry Code, including important migratory corridors for wild animals such as the jaguar.
The legislators also deliberately ignored the mandatory participation of the Indigenous peoples living there. This will further marginalize and impoverish them.
The decision is in line with the policies of Argentinian President Milei, who wants to open up natural resources for economic exploitation and sell them to the highest bidder. Milei considers environmental protection largely unnecessary and denies man-made climate change.
Furthermore, his government views the Indigenous peoples’ demands for respect for their land and human rights as an “attack on sovereignty”, as Vice President Victoria Villarruel declared during the election campaign – demonstrating her profound ignorance.
Please sign our petition to protect the Chaco forest in Argentina.
Start of petition: 28/06/2024
In Argentina, more than eight million hectares of forest – an area the size of the Czech Republic – have been cleared since the cultivation of genetically modified soy was approved in 1996, In the province of Chaco, 859,503 hectares – roughly the size of Cyprus – of virgin forest were cleared during the same period, including 57,000 hectares in the last year alone. During this period, more than a quarter of the forest cover in the entire Argentinian Chaco has been destroyed.
Legal action
To prevent the legislative rollback, Greenpeace Argentina has requested an injunction from the country’s Supreme Court as part of a pending lawsuit. The organization has had a lawsuit for the protection of the jaguar pending there since 2019. The jaguar, whose population is classified as “critically endangered”, has just over a dozen individuals left in Argentina. The provinces of Chaco, Formosa, Salta and Santiago del Estero, as well as the national government, are allowing the destruction of the jaguar’s habitat, in violation of the Forest Code.
Milei government undermines protection of the environment, climate, minorities and Indigenous peoples
President Milei’s government is attemptiing to repeal a series of hard-won regulations en bloc: It wants to repeal the Agrarian Law and the Forestry Law, has dissolved the Special Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Upper House, has announced the dissolution of the National Institute for Indigenous Affairs (INAI) and the closure of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI).
To: the government of the province of Chaco; the Argentinian Supreme Court
Ladies and Gentlemen,
While laws to protect forests and ecosystems are being strengthened around the world, your government is doing the opposite.
The new forest legislation of the Chaco “allows the deforestation of areas currently classified as category II – yellow, converting them to category III – green, which is prohibited by national legislation,” according to Greenpeace Argentina. The organization thus criticizes the injustice you are committing by allowing hundreds of thousands of hectares of virgin forest to be cleared.
We call on you to immediately stop the rollback of the regulations protecting the Chaco, which would allow the destruction of the natural habitat and violate the provisions of the national law on native forests.
The severe climate and biodiversity crises urgently require an end to all deforestation and the promotion of sustainable forest management and restoration, while respecting the rights and territories of Indigenous and peasant communities and protecting biodiversity.
The catastrophic floods devastating the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul show the consequences of failing to protect ecosystems.
At the Glasgow Climate Summit in 2022 (COP26), Argentina committed to halting deforestation by 2030. Policies and laws must move in this direction – not the opposite.
On behalf of the jaguar, a large mammal nearly extinct in Argentina due to habitat loss, and all the species that inhabit the Chaco, we ask you to protect the forests of the Chaco in Argentina. The Chaco, one of the most threatened forest areas in the world, must be protected.
Yours faithfully,
A few weeks after the petition was launched:
The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Chaco charged senior officials, congressmen, and companies with serious crimes ranging from abuse of authority to embezzlement of public funds and conspiracy.
A federal judge issued a precautionary measure to suspend deforestation throughout the province of Chaco, both authorized and not yet executed, as well as the granting of new permits throughout the province.
While Argentina’s attention was focused on the debate in the National Congress in the capital, Buenos Aires, on the comprehensive legislative package (Ley de Bases) of the government of President Javier Milei, the parliament in the province of Chaco passed the new Law on Territorial Management of Native Forests (OTBN) at 2:30 am on April 30, 2024.
This has implications for the conservation and buffer corridors of Copo National Park, La Pirámide Reserve and Loro Hablador Provincial Reserve.
The participatory spatial planning of 2009 is based on the National Law for the Protection of Native Forests of 2007.
