Natives Say Argentina's Mountain Jungle Endangered
8/24/97
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Headline: Natives Say Argentina's Mountain Jungle Endangered
Source: Reuters
Date: 8/24/97
Author: Carmen Pignotti
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
BUENOS AIRES - Indigenous peoples from Argentina warned on Thursday that
logging by a U.S.-owned company is damaging the delicate jungle ecosystem
where they live.
"They are destroying the natural environment and of course also our
lifestyles," said Ceferino Zarate, spokesman for the Kolla communities of
northwestern Salta province.
He told Reuters the Kollas, in many cases forced to relocate from their
homes in the rare mountain rain forests, had started talks on Thursday with
environmental authorities. "But we're not too hopeful and will keep on
fighting," he said.
The Kollas have teamed up with the environmental group Greenpeace to
denounce unsustainable logging in 7,400 acres (3,000 hectares) of Salta's
receding mountain jungle by the San Martin del Tabacal refinery, run by
Seaboard Corp.
The company has logged in the area for decades and says it makes rational
use of resources.
But Greenpeace says no serious impact studies have been carried out and
several plant and animal species, including reptiles and the endangered
jaguar, are suffering.
"They go in with huge bulldozers and ravage the land. This is hardly a
sustainable practice and is especially dangerous in slopes, which are left
bare -- rains then wash away all the nutrients making the land sterile,"
said Emiliano Ezcurra, Greenpeace's biodiversity expert.
Ezcurra, who lived with the Kollas for weeks inspecting the jungle area,
noted it is one of two unique ecosystems in Argentina. The other, in
Tucuman province, was already seriously eroded in the 1920s and has almost
disappeared.
The Salta jungle is also part of a fragile "biological corridor" linking
two national parks, which means it is vital to sustain life of various
species.
However, Tabacal blames farming, not logging, for deforestation not just in
Salta but across the country.
"We cut down very few trees, and if anything we're felling less than usual
-- we started working later this year and in areas where we last logged 30
years ago," said Ricardo Gutierrez, an adviser and acting spokesman for
Tabacal.
He told Reuters the company was preparing an extensive reforestation plan
and said their logging scheme was approved by local authorities based on
existing regulations.
Ezcurra countered: "The only precaution they take is not to fell young
trees, which is often a mistake because the older ones are seed-bearers.
And in Argentina the Biodiversity Convention is law, which means any
decision on these matters must involve indigenous groups. Yet their views
are ignored."
As Kolla member Eusebio Condorio said: "We've cared for this beautiful land
for a long time. But today we are forced to watch how those huge trees, in
whose branches we used to swing, come tumbling down."