Elena María ABRAHAM "Drylands, desertification and macro-economic policy drivers in Argentina’s central west: a case study in Mendoza province"

Drylands, desertification and
macro-economic policy drivers in
Argentina’s central west: a case
study in Mendoza province

Elena María Abraham y Laura Torres

Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA)
CONICET-Gobierno de Mendoza- Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

CONTENTS

Argentina: a dry country affected by desertification

The dry central Andes Region, Monte desert biome

The case of Mendoza province: underlying the
problems of desertification is the concentration of water,
soils and policies

Recommendations for decision makers


Argentina,
an Arid Country

The greatest
environmental issue
in drylands is
desertification, the
cause and
consequence of non
sustainable models of
development


DRYLANDS AND DESERTIFICATION IN ARGENTINA
53º38`W
Dry lands :
- 70% of the national territory (270 million
ha),
- 12% of the total surface water resources
- 50% of the agricultural production
- 47% of the livestock production
Hiperarid and arid
- Productive activities developed in the
Semiarid
Dry subhumid
“oases” (1.5 million ha).
Subhumid
Humid
Study area Desertification :
Falkland
Islands - 60 million ha show erosion processes,
- 40% of the oases area shows salinization
(Malvinas)
and water-logging,
55º58`S
73º35`
W


This situation
becomes critical in
the dry central
Andes, especially in
Mendoza:
150.000 Km2
1.500.000 inhabitants
200 mm annual mean
precipitation

whose economy depends
on the Andean rivers.


Arid and semiarid zones show a
marked heterogeneity, ranging from the
Andean desert, with the highest peak in
America, Aconcagua (6959 m asl), to
the vast alluvial plains in the east (less
than 400 m asl )


Human population is largely
concentrated in the oases where
irrigated land is farmed, “Oases” cover
3% of the territory, with 95% of the
population (300 inhab/km2)

Extensive livestock raising is practiced
in the drylands, where the number of
rural settlements is low (0.7 inhab/km2)


The selected development model excludes non irrigated lands
and their people. Only part of the drylands, the oases had a will
for transformation, using no irrigated drylands as suppliers of
resources and labour.


The two sides of
Mendoza
A heterogeneous environment marked
by aridity, restricted water and soil
resources, loss of biodiversity, natural
hazards and desertification, with strong
economic and territorial imbalance,
whose main expression is the
contradiction between irrigated and
non irrigated drylands.


The water regulatory framework allowed
organization of water administration and
territory development from the perspective of a
traditional model of irrigated agriculture
starting during the late nineteenth
Century, which no longer fullfills the current
and future demands and transformations from
a strategic perspective.
To contemplate the needs of all inhabitants, not
only those in the oases, it is necessary to
reformulate the main legal framework.


CONFLICTS BETWEEN OASIS-NON
IRRIGATED AREAS
Non irrigated drylands of Mendoza
severe desertification processes
high poverty levels
lack of infrastructure and services

- Subsistence Producers (goat breeding)
Livestock Companies
Main - Oil and Mining Companies
stakeholders -Tourist activities
of non
- The State (conservation programms for
irrigated protected areas)
drylands -Agricultural Companies (groundwater
resources)


AMONG THE MAIN DESERTIFICATION PROCESSES IN
THE REGION ARE:

 Macroeconomic public policies that brought about a deep
territorial imbalance and social inequity, based on the
development of cultivated drylands (oasis) at the expense of
non irrigated drylands (desert).

 Extraction of the natural and social capital of non irrigated
drylands ción for the development of the oases and cities


DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NATIVE PROSOPIS
FLEXUOSA WOODLAND
Between 1901 and 1935, a total of 992,478
metric tons of forest products were
commercialized, desertifying an area of 198,550
ha of logged woodland on the plains east of
Mendoza

Liverstock
Grass 11,7%
16,5%

Charcoal
Firewood
2,4%
59,7%

Timber
9,7%
Area covered by native forest according to the delegates of the Department
of La Paz in 1886 and 1887 (After HAM 1886-1897). Source: Abraham and
e 5. Percentage of plain forest products transported between 1901 and 1935
Prieto, 2000


RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DECISION
MAKERS


• To design and implement public policies aimed to achieve
• complementation and not competition between irrigated and
• non-irrigated drylands (oasis and desert).
• To implement legal tools tending to achieve recovery of the
• natural and social capital lost to desertification of non-
irrigated
• drylands, “integrated projects” that accompany the
restitution
• of land to indigenous peoples:
 Access to water for human and animal use
 Technological package for recovering desertified lands
and for agro-silvopastoral use with the land’s endogenous resources.
 Improvement of infrastructure and services in non-irrigated drylands.
 Production diversification and access to education and markets.


• To mitigate existing imbalances
between irrigated and non-
irrigated drylands in the province,
facilitating their integration and
complementarity and promoting
equality for all inhabitants.
.


Increasing
system’s
resilience/Food
Security

Sustainable Land Management

Combat of desertification and poverty /
Integrated assessment- Restoration


MUCHAS
GRACIAS!!!


Elena María ABRAHAM "Drylands, desertification and macro-economic policy drivers in Argentina’s central west: a case study in Mendoza province"

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (10)

Similar to Elena María ABRAHAM "Drylands, desertification and macro-economic policy drivers in Argentina’s central west: a case study in Mendoza province"

Similar to Elena María ABRAHAM "Drylands, desertification and macro-economic policy drivers in Argentina’s central west: a case study in Mendoza province" (20)

More from Global Risk Forum GRFDavos

More from Global Risk Forum GRFDavos (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Elena María ABRAHAM "Drylands, desertification and macro-economic policy drivers in Argentina’s central west: a case study in Mendoza province"

Editor's Notes