June Work Update

 New legislation will lead to increase in deforestation

Salta’s provincial government has recently backtracked on previous legislation on land use planning, and will now allow land owners in areas in which deforestation was not going to be allowed to now apply for their properties to be reclassified.  This is not a surprise, and to some extent was expected. It is yet another confirmation of the fact that the acquisition of lands for conservation is now, more than ever, one of the few remaining strategies through which at least some of the Chaco’s forests might be preserved.

  

Public Hearing – an example of joint action with ASOCIANA

In the last Circular we mentioned Andrew was due to participate in a public hearing on a deforestation proposal for the Department of Anta. This took place on 21^st May, and marked what we hope will be one of many events in which Land for Life can coordinate action with ASOCIANA, the indigenous land rights organization with whom Andrew has worked for the past 10 years.  Though it is unlikely that our participation will stop the proposed deforestation, it has allowed us to formally state that Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) as practiced in Salta are technically flawed. At the end the proceedings the government chairperson made a private comment to Andrew, stating “You have certainly hit us hard and made us realize that there is much to be learnt”. Together with ASOCIANA we have since presented a written request to the authorities, asking them to not authorize the deforestation. Andrew also wrote a brief article on the flawed nature of the EIA process as practiced in Salta, which was published in Nuevo Diario, a local newspaper.

The image above highlights the situation in Anta, in the southern part of Salta. The red circles indicate areas that are currently being cleared. The yellow circle shows the area which was subject to the public hearing mentioned above. It is quite likely that remaining patches of forest in this sector of Anta will disappear within the next year or so.

Contact with Criollos

While in Anta, Andrew met up with a local criollo businessman whose interests are being affected by deforestation. This man has a deep knowledge of the region. This in turn is enabling us to gain a further understanding of the disastrous social and economic consequences deforestation is having for the local population. We believe Land for Life can help bring this situation to public attention. To that effect we are looking at the possibility of undertaking a study of the situation, which should also help us determine which areas in Anta we might focus on in terms of an eventual land acquisition in that particular region.

Dialogue with local Non-Government Organizations

Marcelo, Andrews’s colleague in Land for Life, has made contacts with a local NGO focused on promoting the conservation of the Chaco. He has explained our ideas and intentions to them and we hope to have a more formal meeting with the organization in the near future. We believe this and other similar dialogue will further help us as we develop and define our work

Items for prayer

·         Give thanks for the way in which we have been able to coordinate actions with ASOCIANA. Pray that further opportunities will arise, and that this new working arrangement might prove fruitful.

·         Continue praying for safety and wisdom as we research further into the process of deforestation in Anta. Also pray that we will find people and funds to undertake the necessary studies.

·         Pray for the ongoing work on the formal proposal for the Land for Life initiative.  We still have a lot of work to do, and Andrew has recently had a lot of travelling to do.