Forests law and environmental federalism construction in Argentina

Abstract

In this paper I explore challenges facing environmental policy coordination within the context of the Argentine federal system, as revealed by the following case study: Nº 26.331 -Environmental Protection of Native Forests (“Ley de Bosques”)- Federal Law implementation process, relying on legal sources and other document analysis, as well as on interviews with national and province administration staff members. As I explain throughout the implementation process of N° 26.331 Law, a pattern of coordination in the field of environmental policy emerges, which might be described as a form of dynamic cooperative federalism involving a negotiated distribution of tasks and responsibilities among the national and provincial governments. This coordination pattern is quite original within Argentine environmental federalism. Indeed, as I show in the opening sections, coordination of environmental policy among national and provincial governments had not encountered effective channels in the past. While two concurring mechanisms for coordination did exist –one of them established by the 1994 Constitution and the other one by the existence of the Environment Federal Council (COFEMA) –an interjurisdictional body for policy coordination-, before the implementation of Law Nº 26.331 both mechanisms did not interact constructively. In fact, the COFEMA had rather tried to block federal laws passed under the mechanism established by the Constitution. With the Native Forests Federal Law enactment, however, the COFEMA plays a key role in helping to shape a coordinated environmental policy under the constitutional mechanism. A dynamic distribution of tasks and duties gradually leads to the establishment of a national scope coordinated environmental policy. I argue that this achievement on the institutional level should not be concealed by the fact that native forests’ protection is still largely unsuccessful in terms of deforestation rate reduction.