Some encouraging news

The provincial government has today announced it has put a stop to deforestation on a large plot of land, known as El Alamo. Spanish readers click here to read a local newspaper article on the topic.

Some of you will recall that ASOCIANA had been engaged in fighting this proposal, back in July 2007. The reason given for stopping the bulldozers in their tracks was that the deforestation is possibly affecting indigenous land-use rights. This is a major change in state policy, which has until now tended to downplay indigenous rights in favor of allowing the expansion of agriculture.

The following satellite image, taken from the work we do monitoring deforestation, shows that forest clearence had already been initiated on the El Alamo ranch, which is located within the ancestral territory if the indigenous community of Traslado (red dot).

The action taken in El Alamo is one of the first clear indications that the new government in Salta may be taking a more rational approach towards the issue of deforestation. There is also encouraging noises being made with regards to issuing indigenous land rights in the region of the Pilcomayo.