Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires 'Lung' Threatened

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 8 2010 (IPS) - Without management or a budget, the most important public park in the Argentine capital is falling apart, due to the increase in its commercial use. The February Third Park, popularly known as “forests of Palermo,” has shrunk from 700 hectares in 1920 to 200 hectares today, of which just 130 are freely accessible. The rest is occupied by businesses, not all of which are legal, says a neighborhood group.

“It is a jewel of a landscape that is increasingly degraded. There is no budget and there is no one managing it. There is just a company that cuts the grass and collects the trash,” Osvaldo Guerrica, president of the Friends of the Palermo Lake Association, told Tierramérica.

The group has reported mistakes in signage, illegal advertising and indiscriminate planting, and said that the only resolutions that are kept are those that allow the commercial use of the park.