Permissive Regulations and Forest Protection

The subnational implementation of forest protection legislation is an important aspect of forest governance. In this article, I explore how competing interests regarding production and conservation affect forest protection at the local level in the Argentine Chaco Forest, which represents 60 percent of the Chaco Americano, the second largest forest in South America. Employing original and administrative data, I assess whether deforestation is associated with large producers, who seek to expand soy cultivation into forestlands, and the presence of indigenous communities, who favor forest protection. Quantitative analysis of the departments in the Chaco region suggests that overall deforestation is associated with soy cultivation and past deforestation. In contrast, forest loss in protected areas, which should be zero but represents almost half of total deforestation during the studied period, is positively associated with the number of indigenous communities in the department, the share of protected forestlands, the power of large producers, and past deforestation. Qualitative analysis suggests that lands inhabited by indigenous communities were generally granted protected status, as requested by national legislation and consistent with demands of indigenous groups and their allies. Yet, this protected status has been watered down by permissive regulations and the overall lax enforcement of forest protection legislation, which were in turn driven by large producers invested in cropland expansion.