Forest Protection in Argentina

Just because a law exists does not mean it will be enforced. Take for instance a major environmental law passed in 2007 in Argentina. The law was meant to protect the Chaco Forest, which is part of South America's second-largest forest and the site of the vast majority of deforestation in Argentina. But the law has not been as successful as conservationists hoped. Why not?

Many studies that seek to answer such a question concentrate on two things. One is so-called state capacity, or the ability of a state, through its institutions and governmental apparatus, to organize society and impose its will. The other is the incentives faced by elected officials, especially when it comes to levying fines for breaking a law.  

But the typical approach may not reveal the whole story. Thus, with regard to the environmental law in Argentina, a recent study in Politics & Society takes a different tack. The authors, Belén Fernández Milmanda at Trinity College (CT) and Candelaria Garay at Harvard, use what they call a multilevel approach. 

The multilevel approach takes into account the various interested parties who have a hand in the design and implementation of a law; unlike typical approaches, the multilevel approach treats the design and implementation as closely connected. In the case of the 2007 law in Argentina, the interested parties included conservationist coalitions and large agricultural producers—"organized actors operating at different moments of design and enforcement of the [2007 law]." As the authors write, "Analyzing the politics surrounding the design of the law as well as the rules implementing it across levels of government" best allow them to understand enforcement of the law.

The authors compare the design and enforcement of the law in four provinces: Chaco, Formosa, Santiago del Estero, and Salta. What they find is that the law was such a product of compromise that it contained numerous ambiguities--ambiguities that provincial governors have exploited to reduce political pressure coming from conservationists or large producers. The result has been massive inconsistency in implementation rules and enforcement. Overall, though, the agricultural producers have largely won the day: deforestation has continued in the Chaco Forest apace. In Salta, for instance, forestland declined by 16% between 2002 and 2015, with most of the decline coming after the 2007 law was passed. 

In other words, it's not just whether lawbreakers are fined. Also important, the authors write, are the rules by which a law is implemented, the loopholes a law might have, and the interactions among officials at the federal and state levels with regard to the design and implementation of a law.

The authors base their study on documents, newspaper articles, and close to seventy interviews with governors, legislators, peasant and indigenous movement leaders, and environmental activists.