The Organic Layer in Paraná Delta Wetlands (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Struggles on its Conceptualization and its Value

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze how technicians, scientists, and local people who interact in an area of ​​the Paraná delta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) conceptualize and value the organic layer present in the wetlands of the region. Through an ethnographic approach and conducting in-depth interviews, the local ways of life were addressed. An analysis of discourses was carried out. In the first section, we highlight the diversity of existing forms to conceptualize the organic layer. Based on the dynamic and hybrid nature of scientific and local knowledge, we inquire about the ways in which the different actors recreate elements of meaning from different orders of discourse, and we show that local knowledge forms a local model. In the second section, we highlight how the valorization of the organic layer in this singular socio-historical context is debated and put into discussion, and we show that the degrees of appropriation of the environmental discourse depends on the participation in disputes over the definition of forms of use and appropriation of resources. Finally, we emphasize the importance of this type of analysis to contribute to the understanding of disputes between different actors during the process of the construction of territories.