Posted on May, 08 2014

Deforestation of the WWF priority Atlantic Forest in Argentina’s Misiones Province has decreased by 70% since new regulations were enacted in 2010 to stop rampant forest clearance, according to a 2013 report by the National Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development. The annual deforestation rate 1989-2004 was 1,13%, more than double the average for Latin America and five times the global average. This resulted in an annual loss of 18, 700 hectares (ha). The Native Forest Land Use Zoning law forbids clear-cutting and imposes other restrictions in 1,19 million ha – 73% of the remaining forest -- and as a result the annual loss of forest has fallen to 5,300 ha.