Agricultural expansion in the Semiarid Chaco: poorly selectivecontagious advance

• Autores: Volante, Jose Norberto; Mosciaro, Maria Jesus; Gavier Pizarro, Gregorio Ignacio; Paruelo, José María
• Año de publicación: 2016
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Land use policy 55 : 154-165. (September 2016)
• Materia: Deforestation; Land Use; Models; Remote Sensing; Deforestación; Utilización de la Tierra; Modelos; Teledetección; Chaco Semiárido
• Institución: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria

Clearance for agriculture or cattle ranching was the dominant land-cover change during the last two decades in the South American Dry Chaco. The Argentinean portion has been particularly affected, presenting greater deforestation rates than the continental and global averages. Little is known on the control factors of the location and the spatial clearance patterns. In this article we studied (a) deforestation dynamics in the Argentinean Dry Chaco and the factors determining land clearing locations for the last 25 years; (b) changes in the relative impact of those factors through time and space; and (c) the effect of regulations aimed to control the location and magnitude of land transformation. We also tested the “expansion of the agricultural frontier” hypothesis for the Argentinean Chaco. To identify the factors that defined agricultural expansion we used binomial logistic models that were fitted to a set of independent variables (bio-physical, infrastructure and political factors) that could eventually influence the distribution of new agricultural areas. Results indicate that the Forest Law devised by the Argentinean federal government to control the clearing process was insufficient to restrict both the area transformed per year and clearance locations. Agriculture is expanding over marginal areas and land clearing dynamics have been increasingly associated to the proximity to already cleared areas, defining a frontier—advancement pattern which gives the idea of a contagion process. According to our results, the relative importance of the anthropic factors associated to the agricultural expansion in the region increased through time.
Fil: Volante, Jose Norberto. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Salta; Argentina
Fil: Mosciaro, Maria Jesus. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Salta.Laboratorio de Teledetección y SIG; Argentina
Fil: Gavier Pizarro, Gregorio Ignacio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; Argentina
Fil: Paruelo, José María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina