Between production and contemplation: creation of Protected Natural Areas and new visions and valorízation of the land

The case of the Plateau of Lake Buenos Aires (Santa Cruz - Patagonia Argentina)

Abstract

With a productive journey of more than 100 years, extensive sheep farming was the first and is, at the same time, the only activity with a presence throughout the territory of Santa Cruz. In the 90s, various factors combined their negative effects, resulting in the production output of hundreds of establishments in the Central Santa Cruz Plateau. In the precordillera and cordillera area, precisely on the Plateau of Lake Buenos Aires, in recent years, another problem has emerged: the purchase of land with philanthropy funds (donations from foreign millionaires such as Wyss, Tompkins and others) allocating them to the creation of Protected Natural Areas. This situation generates tensions in the face of what can be defined as an overlap of territorialities.