ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA:
Seeking Safeguards for Vast Wetlands
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 19 (IPS) - Scientists, environmentalists, farmers,
fisher-people and politicians in Argentina are coming up with innovative
formulas for the joint management of three million hectares of wetlands in
the Parana-Paraguay river basin, one of the world's biggest reservoirs of
freshwater and biodiversity.
The largely pristine fluvial wetlands system is shared by six provinces
in northeastern Argentina, and stretches from the mouth of the Paraguay
river to the source of the Rio de la Plata.
The Parana-Paraguay basin in Argentina forms part of the largest corridor
of wetlands on the planet, which includes the Parana river in the Pantanal
do Mato Grosso in southwestern Brazil and the Paraguay river in eastern
Bolivia and Paraguay, which run south through Argentina to the Rio de la
Plata estuary.
Experts say the wetlands system is as valuable, in environmental and
economic terms, as the Amazon river basin.
''Argentinians have no idea of the potential that the basin holds,'' the
director of the Fundación Proteger (Protect Foundation), Jorge Capatto, told
IPS.
''It is Argentina's main source of freshwater, and contains the country's
main freshwater fishing resources. Nevertheless, we don't even have a name
to specifically identify it yet.''
Proteger has taken the lead in designing an ambitious project for the
joint sustainable management of the wetlands, and heads a movement demanding
that the Parana-Paraguay river basin be included on the Ramsar Convention
list of ''wetlands of international importance.''
The Ramsar Convention, which took its name from the Iranian city where it
was signed in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the
framework for national action and international cooperation for the
conservation and sustainable (or ''wise'') use of wetlands and their
resources.
Nearly 500,000 hectares along the middle Parana river basin in the
Argentine province of Santa Fe have already been designated as a protected
Ramsar site, and the provinces of Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa and Entre Rios
have also expressed an interest in setting up a protected wetlands corridor.
The Ramsar Convention currently protects 1,313 wetland areas in 138
countries, covering a combined total of 111 million hectares. The sites
range in size from one square kilometre to six million hectares.
The wetlands corridor in northeastern Argentina would add another three
million hectares to that total, which would forward the goal that emerged
from the eighth Conference of Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention,
held in 2002 in the Spanish city of Valencia, to expand the number of
protected hectares from 111 to 250 million by 2010.
Proteger is confident that adding the Parana-Paraguay river basin to the
Ramsar list would attract enough international attention to the region to
draw investment in sustainable development projects, in which there would be
broad participation by local stakeholders.
The initiative to designate the riverside floodplains and marshland as
Ramsar sites was launched by Proteger in February, with the support of the
environmental organisations Friends of the Earth, Wetlands International,
and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), as well as local universities and
provincial governments.
But a number of meetings had already been held to explore formulas for
the sustainable development of the wetlands, and a fisheries law was jointly
drafted by environmentalists and political leaders from the eastern
Argentine provinces that share the river basin.
As it entails broad public participation, the joint sustainable
management programme would also help avert threats hanging over the basin,
such as the unfettered expansion of the agricultural frontier,
deforestation, excessive grazing, and the construction of large dams.
''In the rest of the world there are very few precedents for this kind of
system, which makes it a very innovative initiative,'' said Capatto.
Proteger and the international environmental groups promoting the
initiative have held more than a dozen workshops and meetings to discuss and
design a plan for the sustainable management of the corridor that has the
backing of farmers and fisher-people living in riverbank communities, local
authorities, environmentalists and the scientific community.
''We need to protect and manage the corridor as a whole, because the
processes occurring in the basin are not only seen in the direction of the
Parana river, which is the main drainage area, but also in other directions
when the river overflows its banks, or the water level drops,'' Juan José
Neiff, director of the Centre of Applied Ecology, said in an interview.
However, ''Defining strict borders to delimit a site poses the risk of
failing to achieve the objective of protection and rational use of an
ecological system, which is very elastic in terms of its outer borders, and
rich in biodiversity,'' added Neiff, who is also actively participating in
the project.
Since natural resources are the responsibility of each of the country's
provinces, each district must meet the requisites for getting the basin's
swamplands, marshes, peat bogs and floodplains added to the Ramsar list.
''The big challenge will come after that, once the corridor is designated
a Ramsar site, and we have to begin coordinating the activities of all of
the various actors,'' remarked Bety Kufner, a researcher at the state
University of Cordoba, who is also taking part in the project.
''That is a very complex task that will require the commitment of several
provinces,'' she said.
Wetlands are considered the planet's ''kidneys.'' Besides providing
potable water, they regulate floods, acting as sponges or reservoirs for
storing excess water, and restore undergound aquifers. They also serve as
transport routes and tourist attractions.
Wetlands systems are home to a wide variety of fauna, and contain
resources like timber, peat, fruit, reeds, resins, and fodder for livestock
when the water level drops. They also accumulate nutrients that are carried
to the floodplains when the water level is high.
A study currently underway to assess the economic potential of the
Parana-Paraguay basin estimates the economic value of each hectare of
wetland at 5,302 pesos (around 1,830 dollars).
Economist Vicente Constanza with the Council of Scientific and Technical
Research revealed to IPS the preliminary results of the unpublished report,
which focused on direct uses of the wetlands, like artisanal, commercial and
sports fishing, the production of furs, leather, meat, timber and firewood,
and tourism, as well as aspects like flood control and water quality.
But the promoters of the project also say inclusion of the area in the
Ramsar Convention would attract between 11 and 23 million dollars in
investment in sustainable development projects, which would in turn serve as
a catalyst for implementing tourism, fishing and trade initiatives.
One of the programmes that Proteger is working on is a plan to certify
the goods produced by riverbank communities in the wetlands area, which
''will require strong support from the scientific and technological
communities,'' said Capatto.
Another plan is to build, with the support of Wetlands International, a
wetlands reference centre - a floating building on the Parana river that
would generate its own electricity, and would provide workshops and training
courses for local residents of riverbank and island communities.
But merely designating an area as a Ramsar site does not guarantee that
it will be preserved, as witnessed by the destruction of most of the
Mesopotamian marshlands, the area where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
join, which was aggravated by the United States-led war on Iraq.
However, experts say it does provide a safeguard. ''Ramsar protection
does not resolve the problem of the unsustainable exploitation of natural
resources, nor can it counteract the irrational effects of a war, but it
does open an umbrella under which a number of actions in favour of
conservation can be carried out,'' said Neiff.
The secretary of natural resources and fisheries of the province of Entre
Rios, Esteban Puntín, told IPS that even if inclusion in the Ramsar
Convention would not solve, for example, the problem of over-fishing, it
would help generate public debate, that would in turn strengthen public
policies.
Kufner also acknowledged that inclusion on the Ramsar list ''is not a
guarantee of protection.''
But ''The important thing here is to come up with alternatives for
sustainable management and joint and integrated efforts, to which all
sectors are committed,'' she said.
Capatto, for his part, admitted that getting the Parana-Paraguay basin on
the Ramsar list would merely provide ''a passport.''
''It does not include the ticket, nor the vaccines, nor the luggage
allowance. All that will depend on those of us who are working on this,'' he
said.
(END/2003)
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