It is possible to conciliate policy-driven forestry expansion and “malezales” wetlands conservation in Argentina?

Abstract

Malezales are hydrophytic grasslands restricted to the province of Corrientes, northeastern Argentina, being considered natural wetlands. Although poorly studied and practically lacking legal protection, which hinders their sustainable management, they are of great economic importance for extensive livestock and forestry industry, in addition to their provision of environmental services and biodiversity. In the last decades, this ecosystem has been the stage of a process of expansion of planted forests, stimulated by policies to encourage afforestation. The present study aimed to estimate and zoning forest expansion over malezales for the year 2050, as well as to evaluate the sustainability of the forest expansion process, considering its conflicts with priority areas for recovery and conservation of the ecosystem. We presented an innovative approach to improve the land use planning in regions with multiple policy-driven conflicts among land uses. Remote sensing tools and geographic information systems were used to map (QGIS), model, project and zone (IDRISI) forestry expansion and its conflicts with areas of environmental interest. The results showed that forest expansion policies caused an intense process of replacing malezales by planted forests, intensely affecting agriculture and livestock and areas of ecological interest. Predictive modeling suggests a worsening of this scenario in 2050. The proposed zoning after conflict identification shows that it is possible to conciliate recovery, conservation and sustainable afforestation of malezales, and serves as a subsidy for planning and decision making. However, its application must be conditioned to further discussions between the actors involved, considering their local and specific needs.