Federal Standards Altered? Comparative Analysis of Forests Law Enforcement in Argentinean Provinces (2007-2015)

Abstract

On November 27, 2007, the Law of Minimal Budgets for Environmental Protection of Native Forests was sanctioned with the purpose of stopping the increasing leveling of forests and ensuring the conservation of surviving forests. This law is important when analyzing the relationship between the National Power and the Provinces because it allows demonstrating the manner in which the provinces respond to the constitutional mandate to sanction the complementary laws in the environmental area, as well as the impact that these laws exert on environmental conservation. This paper seeks to determine the scopes of Native Forest Law enforcement in the Argentinean provinces. Thus, an exploratory study has been conducted considering two indicators: first, the adequacy of the Provinces Laws regarding the standards of the National Law; and second, the illegal deforestation rate per province. Based on the study of these indicators and starting from the literature on federalism, decentralization, and public policies, it is argued that enforcement of the Native Forest Law is not homogeneous in the national territory, but in theoretical terms, enforcement responds to four possible scenarios: “effective enforcement”; “effective implementation”; “simulation games”; “subnational autonomy, and “race to the bottom”.