The law, passed in November of 2007, called for a one-year moratorium on clear-cutting and required each province to form a commission that would designate specific zones of conservation. But despite the law’s passage, deforestation continues and there have been delays in creating the provincial commissions to oversee conservation.

Real World Radio spoke with Marcos Vargas of the Campesino movement in Cordoba, about their experiences creating a provincial commission and seeing the law enacted.

Though social movements in Cordoba were able to convene the commission, there have been significant setbacks. Large agribusiness associations within Argentina known as the four entities that make up what is called the Linked Table or Mesa Enlace, have tried to strongarm the commission’s decision-making, Vargas says, and have also met with provincial politicians behind closed doors in hopes of creating their own commission to oversee conservation. Because of their forceful tactics, Vargas says the process has stalled.