ENVIRONMENT, PRODUCTION AND MARKET. TRANSFORMATIONS IN A PERIPHERAL ECONOMY, THE ARGENTINE GRAN CHACO IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

At the end of the XIX century, there were in Argentina 160 million hectares of natural forests surfaces, for ends of the decade of 1930 that surface had decreased to 33 million hectares. The exploitation of the this extraordinary forest wealth Argentina is the starting point of this historical analysis that intends to study from an environmental history perspective, the evolution of the agro-forest exploitation among the second half of XX century.
Ecological destruction, overexploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation were part of the process our natural forest had to undergo so as to become a member of the world market, through the development of forestal industry. A growing expansion of the demands in the market led to accelerating the processes of extraction of non-renewable resources. These conditions of capital reproduction enabled the development of productive patterns oriented towards maximizing benefits in the short run, leaving the preservation and regeneration conditions of renewable resources aside, stimulating processes that have degraded environmental quality and life quality.