Number of concessions for (filled dots, left scale) and area in hectares (open dots, right scale) of peat extraction in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Numbers for 2004 are based on license applications.
by Adriana Urciuolo & Rodolfo Iturrapse
On March 9, 2004, the Directorate of Water Resources of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, organized a workshop on Management of Water Basins regulated by Peatlands.
The Workshop was opened by the Minister of Production, Dn. Horacio Miranda, and the Secretary of Natural Resources, Dr. Marcelo Morandi. The workshop was attended by members of different organizations and institutions, including the Departments of Water Resources, Mining, Agriculture, Forests, Protected Areas, Environment and Land Planning, and Science and Technology of the Secretary of Natural Resources, the Secretary of Planning, research institutions like INTA and CADIC (CONICET), Greifswald University, and Patagonian University, the Municipality of Ushuaia, National Parks, and the NGO FinisTerrae.
The aim was to discuss the role of peatlands in the regulation of water quality and quantity. The abundance of mires in Tierra del Fuego implies that they exert an important influence on rivers and lakes.
There is limited knowledge about the extent of peatlands in Tierra del Fuego, about the peatland types and their distribution, and about the environmental functions they perform in water regulation, carbon storage and sequestration, and in the maintenance of biodiversity. On the other hand, in recent years a rapid increase in peatland utilization, including peat extraction, urbanization, and tourism, can be observed. These developments are not yet regulated in an integrated way because of the lack of inventory and the absence of land use planning.
The following papers were presented:
- The roll of mires in water basins regulation (Ing. Rodolfo Iturraspe - CADIC /Dir. of Water Resources of Tierra del Fuego).
- Extraction and conservation: excluding or compatibles positions? The wise use of mires and peatlands (Dr. Hans Joosten - Greifswald University, Germany)
- Our knowledge about the mires and peatlands of Tierra del Fuego (Lic. Claudio Roig - University of Patagonia, Argentina)
- Peat exploitation in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (Lic. Claudio Roig - University of Patagonia and Lic. Alejandro Aguirre - Directorate of Mining of Tierra del Fuego)
- Mire conservation in Tierra del Fuego: Where and how? The importance of planning. (Dr. Hans Joosten - Greifswald University, Germany).
In the workshop discussions the following conclusions were drawn.
General recommendations
The workshop recommended
- To complete the inventory of the mires and peatlands of Tierra del Fuego in the next five years. In this inventory (scale 1:100,000) a typology based on various classification principles has to be applied and the suitability of the peatland types for various kinds of land use (incl. non use!) should be assessed.
- To develop an integrated land use planning for the mires and peatlands of Tierra del Fuego.
- To review the legal basis of mire use and conservation. The existing legislature should be reanalyzed and adapted (mire extraction is currently regulated by a national mining law that stems from the 19th century). For this purpose, two lines of action were identified:
- The generation of a proposal of Tierra del Fuego Province to modify the National Mining Legal Code.
- A viability analysis to come to a provincial law for the regulation of mire use.
- To study and quantify the roll of Tierra del Fuego mires for carbon storage and sequestration.
- To promote the conservation of mires in the Peninsula Mitre, because of their high environmental value.
- To inform the community and the political authorities about the environmental importance of the mires, the consequences of peat extraction, and the importance of defining conservation areas.
Number of concessions for
(filled dots, left scale) and area in hectares (open dots, right scale) of peat
extraction in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Numbers for 2004 are based on license
applications.
Source: Alejandro Aguirre.
Urgent actions
The following urgent actions were identified:
1. The establishment of an interdisciplinary commission with the following objectives: a) to study the legal aspects of mires, b) to develop a proposal for the planning of mire use c) to carry out information dissemination activities. This commission should collaborate with the mining, environmental, and water management authorities to achieve the wise use and conservation of Tierra del Fuego mires.
2. The development of a general zonation plan for mires and peatlands use, which must allow for modification when more detailed information comes available with future inventory and research.
3. The restriction of peat extraction, including the refusal of new permissions for extraction until the general land use plan is implemented.
4. The regulation of mire use on the basis of solid technical arguments with respect to hydrological and environmental aspects.
5. The wide dissemination of information about the high environmental value of mires and the consequences of their exploitation.
6. The creation of a protected area in the Peninsula Mitre in which peat extraction is excluded, because of the exceptional properties of the ecosystems in this area in an Argentinean and South-American context.
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Peninsula Mitre (Photo: Hans Joosten, March 2004)
The great moors with their numberless lakes and yellow moss or reeds were broken in many places by outcrops of rocks such as No Top, Flat Top and Haberton Mountain, all wooded to a certain height. Beyond these the moors gave place to hilly forest-land and then we could see the irregular shores of the Beagle Channel, with groups of islands scattered around the coasts.
To the south-eastward, over twenty-five miles away,
we could plainly see Picton island, with the sheltered nook called Banner
Cove where in 1871 Mother had seen, for the first time, a Yahgan family in
their native state, paddling alongside the vessel in their bark canoe; the
same Banner Cove where, twenty years earlier still, Captain Allen Gardiner
and his gallant band had waited in vain for the relief vessel, which had arrived
too late to save a single one of them.
Beyond Picton lay New island and, opposite us across the Beagle Channel, navarin. This last, with its forests and lakes, high moorlands and snow-clad peaks, would have cut off further view had it not been for one wide wooded valley with a great lake in the bottom, which ages ago may have divided the island in two. Through this valley we could see a large expanse of the southern ocean and, blue in the distance, the lonely Wollaston roup, of which the southernmost rock is Cape Horn.
Lucas Bridges (1948): Uttermost Part of the Earth
Peninsula Mitre (Photo: Hans Joosten, March 2004)