"Territorializing Environmental Issues"

Collab: Carolina Somoza, B.A. in Political Science (University of Buenos Aires), holds diplomas in Environmental Law, the Rights of Migrants and Refugees, and Comprehensive Environmental Education. Teacher and serves as an advisor at the Office of the Ombudsperson (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires).

Talking about the environment in Argentina inevitably involves talking about territory: not as an administrative abstraction, but as a living, inhabited space full of social, cultural, economic, and political meanings. Environmental conflicts in the country are largely expressed through territorial disputes that challenge a development model based on the intensive extraction of natural resources, often in tension with community rights and ecosystem protection.

In this blog, we aim to explore the central role of these experiences in Argentina’s environmental conflicts, focusing on Indigenous communities, neighborhood assemblies, and socio environmental organizations. Far from being isolated acts of resistance, these processes build alternatives, generate situated knowledge, and contest prevailing understandings of development and well being.

• Territory, Environment, and Human Rights:

From a human rights perspective, it is impossible to think of a healthy environment without considering territory. Argentina’s Constitution, in Article 41, establishes that everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment and also the responsibility to protect it for future generations.

The problem is that this right is often not fully respected. Political decisions and economic projects frequently move forward on territories where people live, without consulting the communities, conducting thorough impact assessments, or allowing meaningful participation.

For Indigenous peoples, this situation is even more critical. The Argentina's Constitution (Article 75, clause 17) recognizes that Indigenous peoples predate the Argentine state and have the right to their ancestral lands. In addition, ILO Convention 169 obliges the state to carry out free, prior, and informed consultations whenever projects may affect Indigenous territories. However, in practice, these legal frameworks are often systematically violated.

Therefore, when communities defend their territories, they are not only protecting nature. They are also demanding the respect of fundamental rights: access to water, health, cultural identity, and a dignified life.

• Extractivism and Environmental Conflicts

Argentina participates in the global market mainly through the production and export of primary goods such as soy, minerals, oil, gas, and timber. This production model, which has expanded in recent decades, has brought significant changes to territories, causing environmental impacts such as deforestation, pollution, and soil degradation.

These changes also have social consequences: in some cases, communities see their ways of life affected, conflicts over land use arise, and inequalities between regions increase.

In response, many communities organize to participate, propose alternatives, or voice their concerns about how these projects are carried out. It is not only about opposing a single initiative, but about reflecting on what kind of development is desired and how to balance production, the environment, and quality of life.

1.  Esquel and Resistance to Mega-Mining:

In 2003, the community of Esquel organized against an open pit mining project promoted by the company Meridian Gold. Through neighborhood assemblies, mobilizations, and a non binding referendum in which over 80% voted against the project, the community succeeded in stopping it. This case became a key precedent for the country. Later, the province of Chubut passed Law 5001, which prohibits open-pit metal mining using cyanide. The defense of water was central in a region where this resource is scarce and vital.

2. Cerro Famatina: Territory and Identity:

In La Rioja, Cerro Famatina became a symbol of community organization against various mining projects. Since the mid-2000s, assemblies in Famatina and Chilecito mobilized under the slogan “El Famatina no se toca” (“Famatina Must Not Be Touched”). For local communities, the mountain is more than an economic resource: it is a source of water, identity, and collective memory. Sustained community organization successfully halted multiple attempts at exploitation.

3. Defending Native Forests in Northern Argentina:

In provinces such as Salta, Santiago del Estero, Chaco, and Formosa, the expansion of agricultural frontiers has caused high rates of deforestation. Indigenous and peasant communities defend native forests, which are both their homes and the basis of their livelihoods. Organizations like the Union of the Diaguita Nation and the Santiago del Estero Peasant Movement (MOCASE), together with Wichí communities, have reported illegal deforestation and evictions. These struggles highlight the close connection between environmental protection and human rights.

4. Paraná Delta and Wetland Protection:

Fires in the Paraná Delta have raised public debate on the need for a Wetlands Law. Environmental organizations and riverside communities mobilized to demand stronger protection. Defending the wetlands goes beyond ecosystem conservation; it also protects access to water, public health, and local livelihoods.

5. Madres de Ituzaingó:

In Ituzaingó, Córdoba Province, since 2001 a group of women, known as the Madres de Ituzaingó, have been denouncing health problems linked to pesticide spraying in nearby soybean fields. Their activism has brought national attention to the issue and sparked debates on health, environmental protection, and the role of communities in monitoring these practices.

• Criminalization of Protest and Territorial Defense:

A recurring feature in many territorial conflicts is the criminalization of those who defend the environment. Community leaders face legal actions, some protests are repressed, and public discourse often seeks to delegitimize their claims.

From a human rights perspective, it is essential to recognize that environmental defenders deserve special protection. Defending territory is not a crime; it is a legitimate way to protect collective rights and to participate in decisions that affect communities.

• Contributions of Territorial Struggles to a Democratic Environmental Agenda:

Territorial experiences do not only aim to stop certain projects; they also promote alternative proposals. They foster local economies, community-based forms of land management, the recognition of ancestral knowledge, and development models that are more sustainable and just.

Moreover, they strengthen democracy by demanding meaningful participation in decisions that affect communities and by challenging the concentration of economic and political power. In this sense, these processes become true schools of environmental citizenship.

In Argentina, environmental defense is deeply connected to territory. Many community experiences reveal the tensions of certain development models, placing life, human rights, and environmental justice at the center.

Recognizing, strengthening, and protecting these processes is essential to building a more sustainable and just future. There is no effective environmental policy without community participation, nor a viable ecological transition without respecting those who inhabit and care for the territories #ForABetterWorld.

The various experiences of community organization across the country show that territory is much more than a physical space: it is the place where collective life is built. In the face of the global environmental crisis, many of the most innovative and committed solutions continue to emerge from the communities themselves.

Bibliography:

• Constitution of the Argentine Nation.

• ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.

• Svampa, Maristella. Debates Latinoamericanos: Indianismo, desarrollo, dependencia y populismo. Edhasa.

• Svampa, Maristella & Viale, Enrique. El colapso ecológico ya llegó. Siglo XXI Editores.

• Gudynas, Eduardo. Extractivismos: Ecology, Economy, and Politics of a Way of Understanding Development and Nature. CLAES.

• Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros de América Latina (OCMAL).

• Greenpeace Argentina. Reports on deforestation and wetlands.

• Equipo Nacional de Pastoral Aborigen (ENDEPA). Territorial reports.

• Asamblea No a la Mina Esquel. Public documents and statements.