Wetlands law: a rule that never arrives, while the ecosystem is dying
Since 2013, different initiatives have been debated in Argentina to protect these essential spaces for the planet's biodiversity. What is the reality of these areas that extend over more than 21% of the country?
The smoke obscures everything. It obscures the sky, the sun, our lungs. It obscures the inaction of a government that has for years failed to pass a law to protect one of Argentina's most fragile ecosystems: the wetlands. The fires in the Paraná Delta are now a seasonless occurrence. There are no winters or summers. Every day, the blazes destroy the life that inhabits these spaces, among the most valuable in the country.
How can it be that so many declarations of concern and cross-accusations never end with a minimum standards regulation that protects Argentina's wetlands? Perhaps because, in reality, it has become an endless game in which the playing field is increasingly destroyed.
For almost a decade, bills have been debated in the National Congress to regulate activities that put pressure on wetlands and their ecosystems, which are crucial for regulating rainfall and drought. However, these attempts have not been successful.
Because of this demand, since last week, hundreds of assemblies and groups have demonstrated in different areas regarding the need to have this law once and for all, and are calling for mobilizations in different parts of the country this weekend for this demand.
“In recent weeks, more than 140 organizations have petitioned the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the chairs of the Committees on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Livestock, and Budget for a Plenary Session of Committees, with social participation, so that the legislative process can move forward as quickly as possible,” said Ana Di Pangracio , deputy director of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation.
Argentina has a wide variety of wetlands ; it is estimated that they cover 21,5% of the national territory. In the last three years, fires have particularly affected those in the Paraná Delta region, and these fires have been increasing drastically and steadily. Between 2020 and 2021, in the context of a prolonged and exceptionally low water level in the Paraná River and a worsening drought, more than 700.000 hectares of this region burned. In 2022, according to data compiled by the A. Scasso Museum, 140.625 hectares had already burned by August 21.
Wetlands are essential for life because they are the main source of freshwater and are home to 40% of the planet's biodiversity . However, they are disappearing three times faster than forests, and since 1970, 35% of the world's wetlands have been lost.
“In this context of fires and a climate and ecological crisis, it is urgent that provincial and national environmental authorities engage in dialogue, coordinate, and work together to stop and reverse the socio-environmental emergency in the Delta. This is a demand that we at FARN are pushing for, along with countless other organizations across the country,” added Di Pangracio.
the first project
The first bill for the protection of wetlands was presented by Senator Elsa Ruiz Díaz of Entre Ríos , from the Front for Victory, in April 2013.
The drafting of this bill was aided by the Wetlands Foundation , which had been requesting the approval of a minimum environmental budget law for wetlands since 2012.
In September of that same year, Senator Rubén Giustiniani introduced another bill with the same objective. The bills were combined and debated in the Senate , where it received preliminary approval . The Chamber of Deputies , however, never considered the bill , and it lost its parliamentary status in 2015.
Between 2015 and 2018, a total of eight different bills were introduced, all of which either lapsed or never received unified approval. During the presidency of Mauricio Macri , whose first campaign promise was to enact a wetlands law, work began on a bill that faced opposition from the mining and real estate sectors. This was the bill proposed by Senator Fernando “Pino” Solanas.
“Pino had made a tremendous effort. The project was initially referred only to the Environment Committee, and then two more committees were arbitrarily added: Agriculture and Budget. This happened three months later, something completely arbitrary and against regulations. We saw lobbying in action in the committees. The most active lobbyists were agribusiness and mining. This is the environmental bill that has suffered the most lobbying in history . It's like a race where they keep moving the finish line,” said Enrique Viale , from the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers and former advisor to Solanas.
The bill passed its first reading but lost its parliamentary status in 2018. “The real sabotage is letting it languish in committee. Never allowing it to reach the floor. Pursuing it immediately requires a two-thirds majority of those present, which is nearly impossible. It's the only environmental law facing attacks from three sectors: agriculture, real estate and mining, lithium mining, and projects located, for example, on glaciers,” Viale stated.
Pandemic, fires and debate
En 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, they presented various proposals to the Environment Commission of Deputies, chaired by Leonardo Grosso. After multisectoral debates, with the participation of international experts online, the 10 projects presented were consolidated into a unified opinion, that At the time it had the approval of the Frente de Todos and the Federal Unit for Development. The project with a unified opinion was sent to four commissions: Agriculture and Livestock, Maritime River Affairs, Ports and Fisheries and Budget.
However, the Executive Branch, then under Alberto Fernández , ultimately excluded the Wetlands Law from the agenda of the extraordinary sessions in December , and the initiative lost its parliamentary status at the end of last year. In March, Grosso reintroduced the bill, but the Minister of the Environment, Juan Cabandié, along with the Federal Council for the Environment (COFEMA, composed of representatives from the provincial environmental ministries), presented a new proposal that environmental organizations reject as "regressive . "
“We demand a Wetlands Law, but not just any law. Despite the existence of a draft law already agreed upon by civil society organizations, as well as the technical and scientific sector, the Federal Council for the Environment (COFEMA) developed a new proposed text without allowing for public participation. This new text degrades the unified version prepared in 2020. Among the main setbacks proposed by this text, which has not yet been submitted to Parliament, is the diminished leadership of the highest national environmental authority, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, in implementing a minimum environmental protection standard,” he emphasized.
“That’s why our organizations are calling for a Plurinational Action for Wetlands on September 3rd and 4th . It’s a social demand whose consequences affect all citizens, even though we may be hundreds of kilometers away from the fires and other abuses against the wetlands,” said Di Pangracio. One of the most important actions will take place at the Rosario-Victoria Bridge.
What are the highlights that social organizations want the standard to contain:
respectful use: It is necessary for authorities to control anthropogenic activities to protect wetlands through environmental impact assessments. For already degraded areas we propose a restoration subject to participatory and strategic planning and execution processes.
– Wetlands Fund : We propose redirecting the incentives that the State provides to harmful activities towards the promotion of conservation actions, environmentally respectful use and restoration.
– Citizen participation : It is necessary to halt the erosion of rights and the processes of dispossession and forced migration of communities. Therefore, we aspire to decision-making processes with timely, broad, effective, and informed participation.
– Inventory : it is important to register the wetland areas; we propose a collaborative process with input from those who live in the wetlands and other actors in civil society.
– Gender perspective : we need a law that values the roles, contributions and knowledge of women in the defense of wetlands, that addresses their specific needs and respects their rights.