Are Ecological Modernization Narratives Useful for Understanding and Steering Social-Ecological Change in the Argentine Chaco?

Abstract

During the past decades, the Ecological Modernization Theory, and associated ideas such as the Forest Transition Theory and Land Sparing Hypothesis, have dominated the academic and policy arenas regarding the solutions to current environmental crises. However, critiques were raised as these theories, originally conceived for developed countries, started to be applied in developing countries for explaining and prescribing social-ecological transitions. Here, we assess the validity of five key assumptions of Ecological Modernization narratives as applied to the Argentine Chaco, a global deforestation hotspot. We reviewed existing literature and conducted straightforward analysis to disentangle relationships among key variables. Although agriculture intensified, there is no evidence that this intensification inhibited agricultural expansion. Rural depopulation took place between 2001 and 2010; however, deforestation rates did not decrease, and the quality of life of migrants did not increase compared to those that stayed in rural areas. Our review suggests that the consequences of agriculture intensification on biodiversity and the provision of multiple ecosystem services exceeds the area used. Therefore, available evidence does not support the assumed causal relationships of Ecological Modernization, and even contradicts most assumptions. We propose a series of analytical shifts to better capture the complexity of social-ecological transitions in modern commodity frontiers.

Land privatization and deforestation in a commodity production frontier

“…Both State-led and market-led land-tenure changes have been associated with large-scale deforestation and severe environmental impacts, while the latter also with increased socioeconomic inequality (Rudel & Hernandez, 2017). Observed changes in the dominance of agents in the Chaco region have been associated with processes of land dispossession of local land-users by arriving farmers and investors (Caceres, 2015;Mastrangelo & Aguiar, 2019;Vallejos et al, 2020), creating paradoxical landscapes with high levels of poverty and high export commodity production (Paolasso et al, 2012b).…”

Collaborative Governance Networks: A Case Study of Argentina’s Forest Law

“…The presence of power imbalances and contrasting development visions among actors in Salta has been widely documented in the literature [7,17,22,[26][27][28]. The main arguments put forward to explain the ineffectiveness of the law are the low levels of process-related inclusivity and participation, as well as the contrasting visions and unequal influence of different actors in the formulation and implementation of the provincial law [4,7,26,27,29]. There is a substantial amount of literature on the dichotomy between conservation-and production-focused views of the forest [7,8,17,22].…”

Controversial Animal Tourism Considered from a Cultural Perspective

“…The need for solutions to the current environmental crisis has never been greater (Mastrangelo, Aguiar, 2019) and the ecological modernization theory has recently grown in importance. Ecological modernization is a school of thought in the social sciences that argues that the economy benefits from moves towards environmentalism (Hajer, 1995).…”