2.5 million acres left to clear

During one of Andrew's regular visits to the Environment Office, he jokingly asked staff there when they would give him a break and stop issuing permits for deforestation. The response (and it was given in all seriousness) was that Salta still has a further 2.5 million acres of forest that can be used for agriculture, so as far as the state was concerned there would be no letup any time soon.

Our previously reported legal action against an application to deforest an area of around 70,000 acres is currently under consideration by government authorities. We do know that the company concerned is putting pressure on the governemnt to get locally affected indians to accept a deal, along the lines of being given some land in return for allowing them to proceed with their farming activities.

The follwoing video (our first moving picture on the BLOG!) gives some idea of the semi-arid nature of the forests that are being cleared to make way for soy bean and cattle.