Environmental organisations in Argentina are celebrating the passage of a law restricting the extraction of minerals, oil and gas near glaciers such as Perito Moreno in El Calafate, in order to protect these vast freshwater reserves.
The Senate approved the bill to preserve glaciers and their surrounding areas Thursday which is great news for the tourism industry. Particularly Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate which attracts thousands of visitors a year but is rapidly decreasing in size.
The new law stipulates that glaciers such as Perito Moreno are “public goods” and forbids “destroying or moving” the huge ice masses. Stiff penalties are set for those who infringe its regulations.
The most novel aspect of the law, according to lawmakers who voted for it, is that it puts the Argentine Institute of Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Science in charge of making a nationwide inventory of glaciers.
Glaciers in Argentina
Once the inventory is prepared, the Institute’s experts will vet investment projects in protected areas, and will be empowered to bring extraction work to a halt in mines and oilfields already operating in glacier zones or periglacial areas.
The Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), an NGO, applauded the passage of the law and highlighted the key role played in its approval by citizen participation, through the proposals of civil society organisations.
“The glaciers and the high mountain valleys will be protected, with their natural resources and huge reservoirs of water which have essential strategic value,” María Eugenia di Paola, the head of FARN, told IPS.
In Greenpeace’s view, the passage of the law was “a big step by Congress, in spite of the insistent and disproportionate pressure exerted by mining corporations against a glacier protection bill.”
According to Giardini, mining companies spent millions on newspaper ads nationwide, urging lawmakers not to support the bill, as well as on consultants who lobbied legislators from mining provinces up to the last minute.
The law also puts major infrastructure projects in the vicinity of glaciers under the scrutiny of the Institute of Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Science.
Source: ipsnews.net
