The contemporary governance of protected areas

(Re)valuing, protecting, conserving and producing in Los Esteros del Iberá

Land governance for equitable and sustainable development

LANDac conference, Utrecht, July 2015

Nienke Busscher MSc. (n.a.busscher@rug.nl)

University of Groningen, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, Department of Cultural Geography

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PhD research

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Title: ‘Changing human-nature interactions in Latin-America – Examining the contemporary governance of land grabbing and its environmental justice and sustainability implications in Argentina’ Case studies: Corrientes - Timber plantations Santiago del Estero – Soy expansion Supervisors: Prof. Frank Vanclay, University of Groningen, the Netherlands Assistant Professor Constanza Parra, University of Leuven, Belgium

Structure of presentation

1) Problem statement

2) Methodology

3) Theoretical framework

4) Timber plantations in Los Esteros del Iberá

5) Conclusions and future research steps

6) References

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1. Problem statement (1/2)

› Increasing trade in natural resources to respond to global (Borras & Franco, 2012) or domestic challenges

› ‘Commodification of nature’ (Castree, 2008), ‘Land grabbing’ (Grain, 2008; Zoomers, 2010)

› Land grabbing causes a socio-environmental transformation which should be scrutinized further especially in relation to justice and governance (Cook & Swyngedouw, 2012; Ostrom, 2012; Young et al., 2006)

› Better understand the actors at multiple levels that influence and steer local human-nature interactions through policies, rules, actions and institutions (formal and informal) (Brondizio et al., 2009; Ostrom, 2009; Swyngedouw, 2005)

Case study of a protected areas as these areas are subjected to more than just nature protection (‘Green grabbing’, Fairhead et al., 2012)

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› Increasing business / production interest in protected areas (Brockington et al., 2008)

› Nature is increasingly subjected to profit making

› Extractive businesses get a role in fragile areas and change decision-making spaces

› The land extractive industries occupy, are often indirectly or directly used by local populations

› In the protected area Los Esteros del Iberá (Argentina) different timber plantation companies are active in using the land for wood and paper production leading to social, political and ecological transformations

Questions: ‘What are the contemporary interests and actors present in Los Esteros del Iberá? ‘How, why and with what consequences do businesses in this area articulate more responsible behavior?’

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1. Problem statement (2/2)

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2. Methodology

• Qualitative research from a Political Ecology perspective • Semi-structured interviews with state, market and civil society actors • Reseach findings are based on fieldwork that has been executed in October 2014-December 2014 and March 2015- June 2015 • Preliminary findings (still in data collection and data analysis phase)

State, market and civil society actors (non-homogenious): • Registro de Tierras • Dirección de Recursos Forestales • Harvard Management Company - Las Misiones / EVASA • Conservation Land Trust • Forest Stewardship Council • Guardianes del Iberá • Responsible Harvard • Unión Campesina

3. Theoretical framework (1/2)

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Governance-beyond-the-state Roles that different actors play in articulating their interest and responsibilities within certain decision-making spaces and how this slowly takes over tasks and responsibilities of the government (Swyngedouw, 2005, p.1992) Governance-beyond-the-state has two sides, especially when we look at what role market forces play in changing the democratic characteristics of a political arena (Swyngedouw, 2005) The influence of the market (or businesses) may lead to a democratic deficit (Swyngedouw, 2005)

3. Theoretical framework (2/2)

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• Land grabbing leads to a new articulation of state-market-civil society relations

• The role of civil society in opposing land grabs or accepting investments in land for e.g. timber plantations need to be understood within the context of their monetary, physical, cultural and/or social capital (Swyngedouw, 2005)

4. Los Esteros del Iberá (1/2)

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• Corrientes is the province with the largest area of timber plantations in Argentina • In 2015 there is a supervision of approximately 500.000 hectares planted (pine and eucalyptus) • The aim of the provincial government is to increase the supervision till 1,000,000 hectares in 2025 (ley

25.080) (Dirección de Recursos Forestales, 2010) • 206.928 hectares seen as apt for timber plantations within Los Esteros del Iberá (ICAA, 2015)

4. Los Esteros del Iberá (2/2)

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• Harvard Management company owns approximately 88.000 hectares of which 39.000 are planted with tree monocultures in and on the fringes of Los Esteros del Iberá

• Timber plantations are managed by EVASA and Las Misiones • Plantations are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

The environmental and social impacts range from: • Loss of cultural practices and natural diversity • Soil degradation • Alteration in water flows • Extinction of animals and vegetation • Perception of fear in the rural areas • Scarcity of water and land • Indirectly contributing to modern slavery practices

BUT…

5. Timber plantations in Los Esteros (1/2) • Social programs

• Ecological conservation

• Permanent presence of people on plantation

• One of the best examples of companies active in the region

• Spacious divide of trees in the plantation

• Visialization of controversial project of Harvard by students from Harvard

• People in the region generally speaking do not want to work in the timber industry

• Unclear who the owners of the forestatcion are. This leads to fear.

• Little access to information

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5. Timber plantations in Los Esteros (2/2)

• Road blocks as a resistance to the timber plantations led to land titling programs by the government

• Different contradicting programs executed within government institutions

• Government has no financial means to monitor investments

6. Conclusions and future research steps (1/2)

• Although a controversial certification, the FSC certificate in the case of Harvard means a more grounded way of managing tree plantations and can be as a ‘necessary other’ for the state (Swyngedouw, 2005)

• New institutional forms of governing are enhanced by the presence of Harvard

• The state is absent in complying with the basic biopolitical responsibilities within the timber plantation development and can be taken over by market actors

• Institutional enrichment and local distortion of livelihoods leading to global injustices

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6. Conclusions and future research steps (2/2)

• Diverse way of interpreting ´responsible investments´

• To create responsible investments, the voices of the ones that are most affected need to

be heard

• How can we find common grounds to harmonize different discourses over the use of land/natural resources?

• How can we produce, conserve, protect and value nature at the same time?

• How can we secure the livelihoods and cultures of the most vulnerable who are affected by the lack of unity in

discourses and are affected by the growing influence of companies?

• Who is responsible for more ‘responsible’ investments? How can this trend be stimulated?

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Thank you for your attention!

Questions and feedback are most welcome!

Email: n.a.busscher@rug.nl

A special thanks to the Erasmus Mundus program of the European

Union, Excellence Scholarship for Latin Americans and Europeans,

for supporting my fieldwork from 2014-2015 in Argentina.

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7. References • Borras, S.M., Franco, J.C. (2012). Global Land Grabbing and Trajectories of Agrarian Change: A preliminary Analysis. Journal of Agrarian Change 12(1): 34-59. • Brockington, D., Duffy, R., Igoe, J. (2008). Nature Unbound. Conservation, capitalism and the future of protected areas. London, Eartscan. • Brondizio, E.S., Ostrom, E., Young, O.R. (2009). Connectivity and the Governance of Multilevel Social-Ecological Systems: The Role of Social Capital. Annu. Rev.

Environ. Resourc. 34:253-278. • Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature: the logics of deregulation and reregulation. Environment and Planning 40: 131-152. • Cook, I.R., Swyngedouw, E. (2012). Cities, Social Cohesion and the Environment: Towards a Future Research Agenda. Urban Studies 49: 1959-1978. • Dirección de Recursos Forestales (2010). Plan Forestoindustrial de Corrientes. • Fairhead, J., Leach, M. Scoones, I. (2012). Green Grabbing: a new appropriation of nature? The Journal of Peasant Studies 39(2): 237-261. • Grain (2008). Seized! The 2008 land grab for food and financial security. Grain Briefing. • Instituto Correntino Agua y Ambiente, 2015. • Neiff, J.J. (2004). El Iberá ¿En Peligro? Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina S.A. Buenos Aires. • Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science 325, 419. • Swyngedouw, S. (2005). Governance Innovation and the Citizens: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State. Urban Studies 42 (11):1991-2006. • Young, O.R., Berkhout, F., Gallopin, G.C., Janssen, M.A., Ostrom, E., Leeuw, van der, S. (2006). The globalization of socio-ecological systems: An agenda for scientific

research. Global Environmental Change 16 (3): 304-316. • Zoomers, E.B. (2010). Globalization and the foreignization of space: The seven processes driving the current global land grab. Journal of Peasant Studies, 37 (2):

429-447.

• Sources pictures: Author, Google Images, Farmlandgrab.org & M. Miranda A special thanks to Ellen Hamel for taking pictures during fieldwork trips in Los Esteros del Iberá

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Main research question:

• What are the social, economic, and environmental dynamics underlying the contemporary governance of land grabbing in Argentina?

• What are the implications of land grabbing in terms of governance, environmental justice and sustainability of human-nature interactions (SES)?

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