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January 2006 - present
Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Salta, Argentina
Position
- National project coordinator
Publications
Publications (77)
We assessed the extension of natural habitat conversion into croplands and grazing lands in subtrop-ical NW Argentina and its impact on two key ecosystem functional attributes. We quantified changes in remotely sensed surrogates of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and seasonality of car-bon gains. Both functional attributes are associated...
Este documento resume los resultados y la metodología aplicada para producir los mapas de uso y cobertura del suelo (LULC) correspondientes al sector Agricultura, Silvicultura y Cambio de Uso de la Tierra (AFOLU, por sus siglas en inglés: Agriculture, Forestry, and Others Land Uses) de Argentina para los años 2000, 2010 y 2020. El objetivo de estos...
The development of long-term scenarios to outline pathways for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 has become a standard practice in climate change policy planning. In Argentina, a modelling process was initiated in 2019 in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector utilizing three tools: FABLE calculator, Dinamica EGO and Nature M...
La población rural en el Chaco Seco argentino se caracteriza por altos niveles de pobreza, falta de acceso a servicios básicos, e inseguridad en la tenencia de la tierra. Sus actividades de subsistencia y productivas (mayormente ganadería bajo monte) tienen lugar generalmente en áreas de bosques degradados y con fuerte disminución de los servicios...
Land transformation is a major component of global change, directly altering habitat composition and spatial configuration, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. Over the last decades, the Dry Chaco region in Northwestern Argentina has become one of the regions most heavily transformed worldwide due to the expansion of its agricultural frontier....
In Argentina, current food and land-use systems are drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, nutrient outflows, chemical pollution and water stress, while they fail to produce sustainable livelihoods for farmers and herders. Argentina must transition toward more sustainable food and land-use systems to achieve the sustainable develop...
The Gran Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil) has turned into a global deforestation hotspot as a consequence of the agricultural expansion. These land use changes can lead to large socio-ecological conflicts. To reduce adverse effects, common regional planning is needed, which requires diagnostic and prospective information on the terri...
The impact of land cover change across the planet continues to necessitate accurate methods to detect and monitor evolving processes from satellite imagery. In this context, regional and global land cover mapping over time has largely treated time as independent and addressed temporal map consistency as a post-classification endeavor. However, we a...
Dry forests are among the most threatened ecosystems globally, due to agricultural expansion driven by the increasing demand for food, fibers, and energy in developed and emerging countries. Among these, the forests of the South American Gran Chaco are one of the global deforestation hotspots. The Argentine Dry Chaco has been the focus of several s...
Regional characterization of the structure and productivity of the vegetation of the Puna using MODIS images: The Puna is a semi-arid region located over 3300 m.a.s.l. in the northwestern portion of
Argentina. Previous regional studies in Puna focused on the description of the floristic heterogeneity of relatively small portions of the territory....
La región del Chaco salteño está caracterizada por presentar una gran diversidad biológica y cultural. Debido al proceso de cambio de uso del suelo para producción agropecuaria la degradación de la tierra es cada vez más extensa. La empresa Salta Forestal S.A es un caso paradigmático de cambio de uso del suelo para producción agropecuaria y uso tra...
Land transformation is one of the most significant human changes on the Earth’s surface processes. Therefore, land use land cover time series are a key input for environmental monitoring, natural resources management, territorial planning enforcement at national scale. We here capitalize from the MapBiomas initiative to characterize land use land c...
The availability of spatially explicit information about agricultural crops for large regions in Argentina is scarce. In particular, due to temporal dynamics of agricultural production (i.e. changes in planted crops from year to year) and spectral similarities among herbaceous crops it is difficult to generate crop type maps from remote sensing. La...
Unsustainable production systems can exacerbate the negative consequences of deforestation and land use change, increasing the vulnerability of local populations to environmental or economic crises. We developed and applied a participatory method to assess the sustainability of agricultural production systems in the Chaco region of Northern Argenti...
En las últimas décadas, el Gran Chaco Americano, ecorregión forestal de diversidad ambiental y social excepcional –segunda en superficie en Sudamérica, después del Amazonas– se convirtió en una de las tres áreas con mayores tasas de deforestación a escala mundial. En la región del Gran Chaco –que abarca territorios en Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia y...
En las últimas décadas, el Gran Chaco Americano, ecorregión forestal de diversidad ambiental y social excepcional –segunda en superficie en Sudamérica, después del Amazonas– se convirtió en una de las tres áreas con mayores tasas de deforestación a escala mundial. En la región del Gran Chaco –que abarca territorios en Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia y...
Land transformation is one of the most significant human changes on the Earth’s surface processes. Therefore, land use land cover time series are a key input for environmental monitoring, natural resources management, territorial planning enforcement at national scale. We here capitalize from the MapBiomas initiative to characterize land use land c...
The idea that agricultural production and environmental conservation are almost incompatible has divided nature protectionists, advocates for indigenous peoples, and agricultural producers. Discourses seem to cluster along strong, usually dichotomous alternatives such as "production versus conservation". This apparently he-gemonic "common sense" is...
In this study, we present a critical account of the enforcement of the Forest Law in the Province of Salta, Argentina. We discuss whether the objectives of this law were accomplished and we analyze the role that some technical tools, coupled with specific theoretical approaches, could play in its future enforcement. We illustrate our analysis with...
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are increasingly emphasized to address challenges of conserving forests. However, concerns remain regarding the ability of PES programs to ensure long-term conservation of threatened lands. Evaluation of large-scale PES programs, including the spatial and temporal patterns of enrollment, is scarce, esp...
En las pasadas cuatro décadas, las teorías de expansión de las fronteras han sido configuradas principalmente por estudios sobre colonización orientada por el Estado con base en pequeños propietarios. Sin embargo, actualmente, las fronteras agrícolas van quedando cada vez más bajo el control de la agricultura empresarial capitalizada, que opera con...
Spanish translation of the paper
Agricultural expansion and intensification drive the conversion of natural areas worldwide. Scenarios are powerful tools
to explore possible future changes in agricultural land use, how these may affect the environment, and how policies
may influence land-use patterns. Focusing on Argentina’s prime agricultural areas, the Pampas, Espinal and Chaco,...
Over the last 50 years, payment for ecosystem services schemes (PES) have been lauded as a market-based solution to curtail deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems. However, PES programs often fail to conserve sites under strong long-term deforestation pressures and allocate financial resources without having a sizeable impact on long-term la...
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 critica...
En un complejo escenario ambiental, productivo y socioeconómico, el 28 de noviembre de 2007 fue
sancionada en Argentina la Ley Nacional Nº 26.331 de “Presupuestos Mínimos de Protección Ambiental de los
Bosques Nativos" (conocida como "Ley de bosques") con el propósito de proteger los bosques nativos a escala
nacional. En este artículo nos proponemo...
Agricultural expansion and intensification in South America's dry forests and grasslands increase agricultural production, but also result in major environmental trade-offs. The Pampas and Chaco regions of Argentina have been global hotspots of agricultural land-use change since the 2000s, yet our understanding of what drives the spatial patterns o...
Theories of frontier expansion in the last four decades have been mostly shaped by studies of state-driven smallholder colonization. Modern-day agricultural frontiers, however, are increasingly driven by capitalized corporate agriculture operating with little direct government intervention. The expansion of contemporary frontiers has been explained...
Protected areas have been established historically in residual places where the potential for extractive uses is low, implying that places at risk are usually under-protected. Argentina is no exception, with few protected areas established in productive regions that are prone to conversion. Here, using reptiles as a study group and considering the...
The dry forests of Latin America are among the most dynamic deforestation frontiers in the world and are important carbon and biodiversity reservoirs. Our knowledge on the spatial patterns of deforestation and its proximate drivers remains partial though. We used the full Landsat image archive to reconstruct deforestation and post-deforestation dyn...
The subtropical dry forests are experiencing rapid clearing in the southamerican Great Chaco region, mainly for soybean production in Argentina. This is causing biodiversity loss and soil salinization. This forests are unique for the floristic richness and the dense forest cover in a region characterized by semiarid climatic conditions. The authors...
Conflicts over land use and ownership are common in South America and generate frequent confrontations among indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, and large-scale agricultural producers. We argue in this paper that an accurate identification of these conflicts, together with a participatory evaluation of their importance, will increase the socia...
This paper describes the design, development, and calculation of an index to assess agricultural sustainability. This index was called ISAP (a Spanish acronym meaning Agricultural Sustainability Index) and was estimated for seven farms in the Anta Department, province of Salta, Northwestern Argentina. The construction of the ISAP involved the estim...
In South America major landscape transformations occurred in the last decades as a consequence of technological improvements and new international market and prices conditions. Grasslands, shrublands and forests were cleared mainly for soybean production for export. Based on remote sensing and GIS techniques, we analyzed MODIS products time series,...
In South America major landscape transformations occurred in the last decades as a consequence of technological improvements and new international market and prices conditions. Grasslands, shrublands and
forests were cleared mainly for soybean production for export. Based on remote sensing and GIS techniques, we analyzed MODIS products time series,...
This paper describes the design, development, and calculation of an index to assess agricultural sustainability. This index was called ISAP (a Spanish acronym meaning Agricultural Sustainability Index) and was estimated for seven farms in the Anta Department, province of Salta, Northwestern Argentina. The construction of the ISAP involved the estim...
Abstract
Land-use changes are driven by global factors (such as international markets and prices) and local determinants (such as biophysical conditions or land ownership). In Argentina there have been large increases in agricultural production in the Pampas and Chaco regions over the last decade. Grasslands and dry forests have been converted at a...
Land-use change is the main driver of habitat loss and fragmentation worldwide. The rate of dry forest loss in the South American Chaco is among the highest in the world, mainly due to the expansion of soybean production and cattle ranching. Argentina recently implemented a national zoning plan (i.e., the Forest Law) to reduce further forest loss....
In South America deforestation is affecting three ecosystems: “El Cerrado” in Brazil, “Chiquitanos” jungle in Bolivia, and the “Gran Chaco” in Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. The biggest changes in the landscape are happening in the latter two countries due to agricultural expansion for soybean production and cattle ranching. For the Northwest Arg...
In this paper, a land-use modelling framework is presented combining empirical and theory-based modelling approaches to determine economic potential of biofuel production avoiding indirect land-use changes (iLUC) resulting from land competition with other functions. The empirical approach explores future developments in food and feed production to...
[1] Semiarid sedimentary plains occupied by dry forest ecosystems often display low groundwater recharge rates and accumulation of salts in the soil profile. The transformation of these natural systems to rain-fed agriculture has led to raising water tables and a slow, but steady, process of groundwater and soil salinization in vast areas of Austra...
In this paper, a land-use modelling framework is presented combining empirical and theory-based modelling approaches to determine economic potential of biofuel production avoiding indirect land-use changes (iLUC) resulting from land competition with other functions. The empirical approach explores future developments in food and feed production to...
La expansión de la frontera agrícola en el Norte del país trajo aparejados una serie de impactos sobre los
ecosistemas, entre los cuales se encuentra el fenómeno conocido como “fragmentación”. Para cuantificar y evaluar los niveles de fragmentación de las coberturas de interés en el área de estudio y en el tiempo se calcularon una serie de métricas...
Regional characterization of the structure and productivity of the vegetation of the Puna using MODIS images: The Puna is a semi-arid region located over 3300 m.a.s.l. in the northwestern portion of Argentina. Previous regional studies in Puna focused on the description of the floristic heterogeneity of relatively small portions of the territory. N...
The Puna is a semi-arid region located over 3300 m.a.s.l. in the northwestern portion of Argentina. Previous regional studies in Puna focused on the description of the floristic heterogeneity of relatively small portions of the territory. No integrative descriptions of the phisiognomy and functioning of the Puna ecosystems, two keys aspects for dev...
Despite much deforestation in the past, the northwestern Argentinean province of Salta still has more than 6 million hectares of native forests. Land use conversion for agriculture is threatening these forests and the survival of indigenous populations and small-scale farmers. In November 2007, Argentina’s National Congress passed a law to regulate...
Conceptual and Methodological Elements for Cumulative Environmental Effects Assessment (CEEA) in Subtropical Forests. The Case of Eastern Salta, Argentina: Northern Argentina experienced an unprecedented deforestation rate of xerophitic forests as a consequence of agricultural expansion. In the Province of Salta, 26% of the forest were removed betw...
Northern Argentina experienced an unprecedented deforestation rate of xerophitic forests as a consequence of agricultural expansion. In the Province of Salta, 26% of the forest were removed between 1977 and 2008. At the end of 2007, just before the No. 26331 Law of Native Forest Protection was voted by the Congress, the highest annual rate of defor...
El seguimiento de los cambios en el nivel de provisión de los servicios ecosistémicos
con una cobertura completa del territorio es un aspecto crítico en la implementación de planes
de manejo y ordenamiento del territorio. En este capítulo se propone un sistema de seguimiento
de los cambios en el nivel de provisión de servicios ecosistémicos inte...
Por lo general, la economía clásica computa en sus cuentas los bienes y servicios naturales
que tienen un valor tangible de mercado (e.g., alimentos, materias primas, agua, energía). Sin
embargo, la pérdida de un activo ambiental impone un costo que la sociedad no percibe fácilmente
cuando el mismo es intangible. Por razones prácticas (i.e., diseño...
El ordenamiento territorial de bosques nativos en la Provincia de Salta fue implementado
acorde a la Ley 26.331. En concordancia con los principios establecidos por la ley para la
zonificación fueron definidos cuatro criterios principales de un sistema espacial de soporte de
decisiones multicriterio‑multiobjetivo. Estos fueron: conservación de cuen...
The map of the 2006's winter cultures, was made by-parcel classification, of an agricultural area of Salta, (Argentina). This algorithm allows to integrate information of satellite images (multi-temporary and multi-sensor), with digital cartography corresponding to the parcels of cultures. The relative advantages of the method are analyzed. A new f...
La realización de estadísticas agrícolas por medio de sensores remotos permite obtener, además de información numérica, un importante producto como es la cartografía de áreas cultivadas. Con ella se pueden realizar interpretaciones sobre el funcionamiento y la estructura del territorio, que resultan de gran utilidad para los investigadores o tomado...
The objective of this work is to characterize the present state of the rotation cultures system, in the provinces of the Northwest of Argentina (Salta, Jujuy, Catamarca, Tucumán y Santiago del Estero), responding to two questions: a) which are the sequences of more frequent cultures?, b) in which proportion of agricultural area, rotations are accor...
