Use of Geomatic Techniques and Participatory Mapping to Determine the Territory under Indigenous Peasant Management (Province of the Gran Chaco, Argentina)

Abstract

There is plenty of evidence on the importance of peasant and indigenous communities in forest conservation in South America. However, the precarious tenure of their territories constitutes their main vulnerability to deforestation and land concentration processes. 22 % of the Gran Chaco Americano ecoregion has been transformed, affecting these communities. The combination geomatic techniques and participatory mapping proves to be innovative tools for the generation of knowledge about these territorialities. The objective of the work was to map the territory under management of peasant and indigenous communities in a province of the Chaco ecoregion and characterize the state of conservation of its forests. The resulting territory is 61,000 km2, containing 81 % of the forests protected by law and preserving a stable and quality forest matrix. It constitutes evidence in favor of the land sharing strategy and the importance of community tenure. It is concluded that the indigenous peasant communities are relevant in the conservation of the forests protected by Law No. 26.331. That participatory geographic information systems allows the generation of public information on territories with precarious tenures, providing new tools for the defense of the territories.