南米のもう一つの大森林グランチャコ　農地開拓で伐採進む

【レシステンシアＡＦＰ＝時事】アマゾンに次いで南米で２番目に広大な森林が広がるグランチャコ地方。アルゼンチンとパラグアイ、ボリビアにまたがる１００万平方キロの自然林が農業によって、過去四半世紀にわたり徐々に破壊されてきたことはあまり知られていない。（写真は、アルゼンチン・チャコ州のフアンホセカステリ郊外で伐採された樹木）
　とげ植物の低木林、疎林、ヤシが生えるサバンナなどが混在する熱帯乾燥林の広範囲に、森林伐採が大きな傷跡を残している。
　グランチャコで１年に伐採される森林の面積は平均約４００平方キロ。ピーク時には６００平方キロに及んだこともある。
　重機で根こそぎ引き抜かれ、ところどころに横たわっているイナゴマメの木は、タンニンを利用したり、木炭や家具、鉄道の枕木などに使われたりする。密度の高い木材が必要となる枕木での需要も高い。
　アルゼンチン北東部、首都ブエノスアイレスから約１１００キロ離れたこの地は、同国の農業における「フロンティア」となっている。
　ＮＧＯなどが参加する「アルゼンチン・チャコ地方アグロフォレストリーネットワーク」のイネス・アギーレ氏は、大豆の遺伝子組み換え技術が登場した９０年代にこの地方の開発が始まったと説明する。
　外貨不足のアルゼンチンに不可欠な農産物の輸出は、動植物の多様性を犠牲にして推進されている。
　グランチャコには、アリクイやペッカリー、サンゴヘビ、バク、南米大陸最大のネコ科動物であるジャガーなどが生息するインペネトラブレ国立公園がある。特にジャガーは絶滅の危機に直面しており、野生再導入の対象となっている。
　動植物だけではない。自然と共生する先住民も生活の場を奪われてしまう。ここには、ウィチやクリオロといった先住民のコミュニティーが存在している。
　最優先すべきなのは「森林伐採を止めること」だとアギーレ氏は強調する。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/12/02-16:38）

Dwarfed by its more prestigious sibling, the Amazon, South America's second largest forest is a little-known victim of 25 years of gradual invasion by agriculture.
The Gran Chaco indigenous forest that spans one million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) across Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia is at the mercy of ravenous soybean and sunflower crops, as well as pasture land.
Comprising a mix of dry thorn shrubland, woodlands and palm savannas, the dense tropical dry forest contains massive scars -- vast areas of deforestation gouged out with alarming regularity.
The harm to local fauna and flora is immeasurable.
In some places, as far as the eye can see, carob trees uprooted by heavy machinery lie waiting to be taken away and used as charcoal, tannin, furniture and railway sleepers, for which this dense hardwood is particularly prized.
Here, in Argentina's northeast, some 1,100-kilometers (685 miles) from Buenos Aires, is the country's agriculture frontier.
It is where the agro export industry, so crucial for a country short on foreign currency, advances at the expense various species of fauna and flora, as well as people.
Practically all of Chaco province used to be covered by forests, agricultural engineer Ines Aguirre from the Chaco Argentina Agroforestry Network told AFP.
But when the technological package of genetically modified soyabean appeared in the 1990s, the Chaco zone began to be colonized.
- 'Strong agro pressure' -
Two of Argentina's main exports, soybean (30 percent) and genetically-modified corn are, like sunflowers, resistent to dry climates, allowing them to thrive in the semiarid Chaco region.
Deforestation in the region has averaged around 40,000 hectares (154 square miles) a year, peaking at 60,000 on occasions, said Aguirre.
This shouldn't happen because all forms of deforestation have been suspended in the province, said Noemi Cruz, the forests campaign co-ordinator at Greenpeace, while picking up a handful of dusty earth from a patch of ground cleared of trees.
Without the protection of those trees water slides on the surface but won't penetrate the ground during the rainy season.
Chaco includes a 128,000 hectare national park called The Impenetrable that is designated a red zone and strictly protected by a forestry law. But there are also yellow zones where tourism and soft agriculture are allowed, and green zones that are a free-for-all.
But this law has not proved sufficient to protect the forests.
There is strong pressure from companies and agricultural producers that want to open up more farmland and there is a permanent international demand for primary materials, especially soyabean and beef, said biologist and researcher Matias Mastrangelo, from the CONICET national scientific and technical research institute.
In the case of illegal logging, a lightly punitive fine does not discourage clearing and the companies incorporate it as another production cost.
What this means is that deforestation around The Impenetrable park affects the rich fauna living within it, such as anteaters, peccaries, coral snakes, tapir and the continent's largest feline, the jaguar, which is endangered in the region and the subject of an ambitious reintroduction program.
A forest that becomes a soybean field can no longer provide shelter for the jaguar, nor any of its prey. The destruction is absolute, said biologist Gerardo Ceron, coordinator of the Rewilding Argentina team managing the predator's reintroduction.
- Large mammals at risk -
In the dry Chaco, we are probably facing a very serious effect of losing fauna. We are seeing especially the extinction of large mammals, said Micaela Camino, a biologist at CONICET, citing the giant armadillo and white-lipped peccary as examples.
When a species is lost, you lose what is unique about the species. But also the nutritional security of local families and all the functions that this species performed in the ecosystem.
You're losing the ability of this ecosystem to survive, regenerate and be resilient, which is very dangerous in a context of climate change.
It is not just fauna and flora being pushed out but also local indigenous communities, such as the Wichi and Criollo who live in the forest.
What generally happens is that before the logging, the rights of these families are violated. They are swindled (out of their land) and forced to leave their homes, added Camino.
Aguirre says there are solutions to regenerate the lost Chaco forest, starting with the replanting of the carob tree.
The carob tree, which is a legume, produces a reaction between bacteria and the tree's roots that recomposes the nitrogen in the soil. It's amazing, the growth is incredible, she said.
But such programs are for later, for now the priority is stopping deforestation.