a b s t r a c tThe aim of this work was to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of the transformation of the natural cover in the Dry Chaco ecoregion from 1976 to 2012. Dry forests in this region have one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. We analyzed 44 Landsat scenes, including part of Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. The analysis was based on tracking individual transformed plots of the entire Dry Chaco region for over more than three decades using the same protocol. Until the end of 2012 15.8 million ha of the original habitats of the Chaco were transformed into croplands or pastures. Our study showed that the greater annual rates of transformation were observed in Paraguay, where deforestation increased dramatically in the last decade, reaching values higher than 4.0% in 2010, the highest historical value in the entire region. The size of the transformed plots increased significantly through the studied period both in Argentina and Paraguay, while in Bolivia decreased. At the landscape level, the use of several fragmentation indices showed the disruption of the continuity and connectivity of the original vegetation. The spatially explicit description of the dynamics of transformed areas is an indispensable tool for natural resources management, territorial planning and deforestation impacts assessment. The developed geo-database is available online at http://monitoreodesmonte.com.ar/ for further analyses and use.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

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.

No abstract

No abstract

Roads have important effects on wildlife, such as natural habitat fragmentation and degradation and direct killing of fauna, which leads to reductions in wildlife population size. We focused on a principal road in Northwest Argentina to test for the effect of seasonality and landscape features on the composition of road-killed wildlife. We conducted regularly scheduled road trips during the dry and wet seasons. We recorded the presence or absence of a vegetation curtain or hedge along the road. We measured land use by remote sensing in a 500 m buffer along the road. We compared the abundance of animals killed between seasons (dry and wet) for different taxonomic groups (mammals, birds and reptiles) and for different origins (domestic and native). We built linear mixed models to test the effect of landscape features on the abundance of killed animals. Two hundred and ninety-three individuals were killed, belonging to 35 species; 75.8 % were native and 24.2 % domestic species. The majority of animals killed were mid-sized mammals. More animals were killed during the dry season. The most important factors to explain the wildlife road-killing were the season and the proportion of agricultural landscape. The composition of the killed animals changed with the season. The proportion of agricultural landscape incremented the number of killed birds and mammals during both seasons, without affecting reptiles. The ratio of wild to domestic animals killed was dependent on the season. This study sets a precedent as the first in road ecology in Northwest Argentina and should be taken into account for road planning and regulation.