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.

RESUMEN.Argentina cuenta con varias experiencias de ordenamiento territorial (OT) pero hasta el momento no ha sancionado una ley integral. Uno de los principales antecedentes es el ordenamiento territorial de los bosques nativos (OTBN) a través de la ley 26331, sancionada en 2007. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar las experiencias de zonificación en el marco de esta ley de las provincias de Santiago del Estero, Chaco, Formosa y Salta. Se analizó la aplicación de los 10 criterios de sustentabilidad ambiental contemplados por la ley y se compararon cuantitativamente los mapas de zonificación resultantes del proceso de OTBN en las áreas limítrofes. La interpretación de los criterios de sustentabilidad ambiental ha sido dispar entre provincias debido, en parte, a que la información de base utilizada no tiene el mismo nivel de detalle. Salta y Chaco consideraron mayor detalle en estos criterios mientras que Santiago del Estero y Formosa utilizaron información con un nivel de detalle menor. La comparación de la categorización de bosques entre provincias colindantes muestra que la mayor concordancia en las categorías asignadas se observa en los límites de Santiago del Estero y Chaco (58.3%). El grado de concordancia entre los restantes pares de provincias colindantes resultó considerablemente menor: 24.76% entre Chaco y Salta; 20.65% entre Formosa y Salta; 10.54% entre Chaco y Formosa y 1.28% entre Salta y Santiago del Estero. Los resultados sugieren que las zonificaciones no han resultado consistentes debido al bajo nivel de concordancia en la categorización de sus bosques.[Palabras clave: Ley de bosques nativos, Plan de ordenamiento territorial, criterios de sustentabilidad ambiental, categorías de conservación] ABSTRACT. Native Forest Land Management: Zoning results performed by North argentinean provinces:Argentina has several experiences on Land Planning, but so far there is not an integral normative. A key background experience is the land use planning of native forest act (26331) from 2007.The aim of this study was to evaluate the experiences of zoning of the provinces of Santiago del Estero, Chaco, Formosa and Salta in the context of this act. We characterize the way the 10 criteria of environmental sustainability were considered by the four provinces, and we quantitatively compared the zoning maps on the provincial boundaries. The interpretation of the criteria of environmental sustainability differed, in part, because the different provinces did not use the same level of detail. Salta and Chaco considered a higher level of detail on these criteria than the rest. The comparison of the way forests were categorized showed that the highest concordance corresponded to the Santiago del Estero -Chaco border (58.3%). All the other pairs of neighbor provinces presented a significantly lower concordance: 24.76% between Chaco and Salta, 20.65% between Formosa and Salta, 10.54% between Chaco and Formosa and 1.28% between Salta and Santiago del Estero. Our results suggest that the zoning has not been consistent due t...