What is the status of the Forest Law in the Chaco Region ten years after its enaction? Reviewing its past to discuss its future. In a complex environmental, productive and socioeconomic scenario, on November 28th, 2007, the National Act N°26.331 of "Minimum Standards for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests" (known as the "Forest Law") was sanctioned in Argentina with the purpose of protecting native forests at the national scale. In this article, we aim to critically synthesize the available information about this law ten years after its sanction from an approach that takes into account environmental, economic and social aspects. In particular, we characterize the performance of this law in the Chaco Region in different dimensions, identify its main challenges and describe a series of proposals that from the science and technology sector can contribute to its (re)design and implementation in the context of the revisions of the Provincial Native Forest Land Use Planning Programs. In order to accomplish these objectives, we integrated information available from different sources, such as laws and regulations (national and provincial), scientific literature, reports from government agencies and NGOs and newspaper articles. The Forest Law installed in the public opinion of our country the problems related to the loss of native forests and has positioned itself as the main national instrument for forest conservation. Although deforestation rates lowered in the Chaco Region, there is no clear evidence that this reduction was due to its application. The Forest Law in the Chaco Region presents a series of challenges to improve its performance in terms of its effectiveness, equity and social legitimacy. In this paper, we present ten observations that emerge from the review carried out. On the other hand, linked to these observations, we outline a series of research and action proposals for enhancing the performance of the law.
In the context of climate change’s detrimental effects on agricultural production and food security, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategies constitute a promising approach to reduce vulnerability and boost adaptation capacity and resilience within farmers. However, CSA strategies should address gender dynamics to reach their full potential. This study analyzed the barriers and opportunities for the implementation of gender-sensitive CSA strategies in rural Guatemala, a low-latitude country with a high gender gap index, through the perceptions of agricultural extensionists. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey among Guatemalan agricultural extensionists who attended a series of Climate Services for Agriculture workshops between May and July 2021 and analyzed the results using a qualitative approach. Results suggest that women in rural Guatemala are frequently excluded from climate information access, agricultural training, and decision-making spaces in which agricultural resource management strategies are defined. We argue that this exclusion represents a barrier to the improvement in adaptation capacity and resilience and that gender inequity should be addressed to implement successful gender-sensitive CSA approaches. Generating gender-sensitive indicators and training extensionists against gender bias could be a starting point, but further research is necessary to understand gender dynamics in rural Guatemala.
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