On November 7 and 8, 2024, the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature will officially visit and hold its 13th local session in the province of Corrientes (Argentina) in response to a complaint by the local organization Defensores del Pastizal about the negative social and environmental impacts of the forest monoculture model.
The Tribunal is giving regional treatment to the problem of the forest model. On January 12 and 13, 2023, the 11th local Tribunal on the Rights of Nature was held, focusing on the forest model in the Biobío region, Chile, and the forest fires associated with this commercial scheme. During the Tribunal, the devastating impacts of eucalyptus and pine monocultures in the region were noted, which not only eliminate the biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems, but also contribute to the spread of catastrophic forest fires. These fires razed more than 45,000 hectares. Similar models are replicated in Argentina, particularly in the Corrientes region.
On November 7, the Court will visit the affected ecosystems and territories and the Corrientes communities that inhabit them, in order to verify potential violations of the Rights of Nature and its defenders.
During the public hearing on November 8 (in the Espacio Mariño in the capital of Corrientes), specialists on the subject will speak and directly affected residents will give their testimony on the ecological and social consequences of this extractive production model. Towards the end of the hearing, the judges will issue a preliminary verdict that will mark a historic precedent for the province.
The members of the Tribunal who will travel to Corrientes will be Alberto Acosta (President of the Tribunal, economist, Ecuador), Yuvelis Morales (socio-environmental leader, Colombia), Enrique Viale (environmental lawyer, Argentina), Jacqueline Arriagada (peasant and activist, Chile), Maximiliano Mendieta (lawyer specializing in Human Rights, Paraguay) and Natalia Greene (Secretary of the Tribunal, Ecuador). The Earth Prosecutor, biologist Renata Nicora Chequin (from the organization Defensores del Pastizal, Corrientes) will lead the prosecution.
Press Release
General context
For decades, the Argentine government has been strategically promoting the development of the forestry industry in its provinces.
The logic behind this strategy is the observation of the rapid growth rate of exotic wood species in the Argentine Mesopotamia. Growing wood quickly for export, mostly to Europe, is an attractive economic activity due to its easy profits and efficiency. This forestry industry is mostly focused on monocultures of exotic species such as pines and eucalyptus. In 1998, Argentina’s Law on Investments for Cultivated Forests No. 25,080 meant a first step towards the intensification of the cultivation of these species. Several laws followed and the creation of the Forestry Competitiveness Roundtable in 2017 accelerated this forestry policy even further.
Over the years, voices have been raised against these policies that the Government presents as supposed policies of economic and social development and mitigation of climate change. Criticism from several groups of farmers and socio-environmentalists focuses on the fact that these monocultures are not forests as they are promoted, but rather more like green deserts, causing significant environmental and social impacts. In recent years, these criticisms have become even stronger due to the massive fires that have occurred in the region and that are linked to this forestry model. It was analyzed that these monocultures favor the instigation and spread of fires due to excessive use of water (the deep roots of the trees take advantage of much of the groundwater and much of the water is used for irrigation), the production of flammable substances and materials (leaves on the ground that do not disintegrate easily, pine resin) and the impoverishment of the soil and the resilience of the ecosystem.
Corrientes Case
The province of Corrientes, in the northeast of Argentina, spans 88,199 square kilometers and has incredible ecological wealth due to its numerous bodies of water and its enormous biodiversity, which gave it the title of a protected site under the Ramsar Convention. The region is known for its millions of hectares of grasslands and wetlands.
The economic activities of the region focus on industrial agriculture and livestock. With state policies on the forest industry, many of the grasslands and lands of local towns have been converted into spaces for eucalyptus and pine monocultures. The organization Defenders of the Pasture speaks of “a transitional process from extensive livestock farming, which under a certain type of management manages to maintain the natural ecosystem, to forest monoculture that modifies 100% of the environment, turning into a green desert for native fauna, leading to its extinction.”
Many laws have been passed to boost the wood and paper industry, resulting in the fact that in 2018, monocultures and native forests in the region were of the same surface area. Some of these significant steps were the Corrientes Pact for Economic Growth and Social Development of 2013, the creation of the Santa Rosa Forest-Industrial Park in 2017 and the sanction of provincial law n°6496 which declares the development of the paper and cellulose industry to be of provincial interest, facilitating the foreignization of land. In 2020, the promotion of a massive sawmill with the multinational HS Timber Group and other pine resin extraction projects began. All this happened in a context of more laws to facilitate the sale of land, a drought phenomenon due to poor water management, and these same increasingly massive and brutal forest fires and a systematic lack of effective measures to stop them. In the summer of 2023, more than 100,000 hectares were devastated by fire, triggering a vicious cycle of even more drought and destruction without any political responsibility taken.
Impacts of the pine and eucalyptus monoculture forestry model:
- Massive forest fires
- Water drainage
- Misinformation of local people, presenting forest monocultures as forests and models of development and mitigation of climate change
- Destruction of ecosystems as a consequence of their total modification
- Expulsion of native fauna that no longer finds food or shelter
- Rural exodus due to loss of environmental conditions that allow survival agriculture
- Violation of human and workers’ rights in these monocultures
- Violation of the health of the local population due to smoke from the fires
- Violation of the health of the local population due to agrotoxins used in monocultures
- Loss of cultural heritage (legends and characters linked to wetlands and grasslands)
International Rights of Nature Tribunal
The International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature is an international institution created by citizens to investigate violations of the Rights of Nature. The Tribunal creates a forum for people around the world to speak out on behalf of Nature and protest the destruction of the Earth, encouraged by corporations with the blessing of governments. In this way, the Tribunal makes conflicts and their actors visible and makes legal recommendations on the protection and restoration of the Earth as an example of jurisprudence for grassroots communities fighting to protect ecosystems. The Tribunal also focuses on supporting Indigenous Peoples to raise their voices and share the impacts they see in their territories as stewards of the Earth. It is a space to share alternatives on land, water and culture with the global community. The Tribunal’s verdicts, if applied at the highest level, could provide a necessary tool in the fight for environmental protection and justice.
For more information on the Tribunal on the Rights of Nature, click here.
LIST OF RENOWNED GUEST JUDGES
Aquí encontrarán los jueces y sus biografías
Enrique Viale
Argentina
Alberto Acosta
Ecuador
Yuvelis Morales
Colombia
Maximiliano Mendieta
Paraguay
Natalia Greene
Ecuador
Jaqueline Arriagada
Chile
Experts of the case
Aquí encontrarán los jueces y sus biografías
Nora Rosana Maciel
Lawyer
Lawyer. Public Defender. With training in human rights. Member of the collective Defenders of Coastal Public Spaces. Member of the mental health collective. Member of Rednnaj. Vice president of RESET. Specialist in the judiciary and judicial function, in drug and human rights policies, in race and gender. UNNE researcher on vulnerable children from 2011 to 2019. Co-author of the book Vulnerable Children: Contributions to the Debate in the Province of Corrientes.
Cristian Piriz
Environmentalist Social activist
Guardian Coordinator of Y’vera Argentina.
Florencia Quijano
Bachelor of Biological Sciences
Park ranger and graduate in Biological Sciences (UNNE – Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences and Surveying). CONICET Doctoral Fellow. Member of Defensores del Pastizal. Member of the Argentine Primatology Association.
Tomás Camarasa
Bachelor of Environmental Management
Lawyer. Environmental activist. Project coordinator for Aves Argentinas in Gran Chaco. Former undersecretary of environment and biodiversity of the province of Chaco. Former attorney in environmental trials of the federal and ordinary jurisdiction. University professor. Drafter of various environmental law projects. Advisor on environmental policy and law in the Legislature of the province of Chaco.
Maria Clara González
Bachelor of Biological Sciences
Park ranger and graduate in Biological Sciences (UNNE – Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences and Surveying). Wildlife research and monitoring technician at the Directorate of Protected Areas and Biodiversity of the Province of Chaco. Member of Defensores del Pastizal.
Ayalén Morales Michelini
Master in Social Anthropology
UNNE-CONICET Fellow. Master in Social Anthropology from the ICS of the Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. Member of the Center for Co-laborative Ethnographic Studies of the Faculty of Humanities. Currently developing a line of research on territory, memory and identities in Corrientes.
Guadalupe Quiroz
Educational Sciences
Born in San Miguel, Corrientes. Professor of Educational Sciences, graduated from the Faculty of Humanities (UNNE). Works at the ISFD “San Miguel” and is a member of the CETCO (Center for Ethnographic Studies in Co-Labor) of the Faculty of Humanities (UNNE) and the Guaraní UNNE Chair. Coordinator of the Project “Knowledge and Memories of the People of San Miguel and its Places” (UNNE-ISFD San Miguel-Municipality of San Miguel). Currently developing a line of research on territory, memory and identities in Corrientes.
Peticionarios del Tribunal
Organizaciones defensoras de los pastizales en Corrientes
Somos una alianza integrada por diversas organizaciones de Argentina y del mundo, que nos hemos convocado para promover la perspectiva de los derechos de la naturaleza como una forma válida y necesaria de abordar el impacto sobre los derechos del pastizal y otros elementos bioculturales. Las organizaciones que conforman esta alianza son las siguientes: