Confins (Sep 2020)
Áreas protegidas e acesso à terra: o caso de El Chaltén no Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Patagônia Argentina)
Abstract
The incorporation of South Patagonia into Argentina´s territory is the result of dynamics originating in central spaces and associated to the expansion of capitalism over strategic spaces. In line with the military action called “The Campaign of the Desert”, the creation of the first National Parks also assumed geopolitical purposes to consolidate national sovereignty. In the beginning, protected areas were considered fundamental pieces for national development. For this reason, they allowed certain human activities such as livestock, forest exploitation and also human settlements. However, since 1980 these territorial units are categorized by the international standards. In this globalization context, National Parks begin to restrict those historical uses of land, including human settlements. Encouraged by the idea of strong conservation, excluding society, these spaces may be considered responsible for territorial precarious processes. At the same time, the national tourism promoted in the National Parks is changed to answer the international demands. El Chaltén is a small town located southwest of the Santa Cruz province in southern Argentinean Patagonia. It is surrounded by the Los Glaciares National Park (LGNP) which is consolidated as a border to urban expansion. The most relevant territorial problem in El Chaltén is the land access. From a critical perspective, the objective of this article is to uncover the power relations between the agents who appropriate the space in the protected area. Through a qualitative focus, we analyze the processes of land appropriation in El Chaltén and the LGNP based on three jurisdictional conflicts between different actors. The results show that the protected area functions as a border of land access to the population of El Chaltén but it becomes a strategic space for the accumulation and reproduction of capital.
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