Miriam Viscusi, senior researcher Geo
Abstract
Summer season in 2025 was especially critical for Argentina, because of the forest that destroyed almost 40 thousand hectares in southern region Patagonia, including a national park. The total number of destroyed hectares, if counting the whole country, is around 150 thousand hectares. The intensity of the fires was a combination of strong winds and high temperatures. Even though this is an almost typical condition for southern Argentina in summer, this year showed on one side the crucial impact of climate change and on the other the lack or inadequate response of institutions.
Introduction
February 2025 was a difficult period for Argentina, in terms of climatic challenges. This was due especially to a series of fires - more than 3.000 - that affected the southern region of Patagonia and the north-eastern province of Corrientes. In the first two weeks of February, such fires - that began in December 2024 - had already destroyed 37.000 hectares of land, including areas in national parks of Lanin, Epuyen, Los Arceles and Atilio Viglione (all of them located in Chubut province). Fires also affected Nequen, Rio Negro and Corrientes provinces, included the national park Nahuel Huapi in Rio Negro. In Corrientes, more than 100 hundred hectares were destroyed. A total of more than 1.500 houses were affected and needed to be evacuated. Final digits amount to 48 thousand hectares burned in Patagonia and almost 100 thousand hectares devastated in Corrientes. Causes of such climatic hazards are linked to the combination of strong winds and high temperatures, reaching up to 34,7 Celsius degrees in January and 35,6 Celsius degrees in February (National meteorological service).
However, some sources point out that the responsible institution (the National fire management service, Snmf) underwent a cut in financial resources and only used around 25 per cent of the annual budget, 81 less than what it used in the same period in 2024. The increase in extension, frequency and intensity of the fires, combined with a limitation in resources to manage them, boosted the effect of these fires.
Fires in Argentina: the sensitive area of Patagonia
Fires have always existed in Argentina and especially in the Patagonia region. It is related to the natural features of the environment but also to cultural and anthropic reasons. Human reasons can be necessity related to agriculture (for example to burn remains of the harvest or waste, or to regenerate the soil), negligence or intentional in order to change the right to use a specific terrain. On the climate point of view, what causes such strong fires is a combination of strong winds and high temperatures, together with the influence of La Niña, a meteorological phenomenon which causes intense drought. Moreover, with an increase in frequency and intensity of electric storms, there is also an increase in fire probability.
According to a research carried out by the National institute for biodiversity and environment (Inibioma) there is an increase in fire probability in the next few years and it is related to climate change. According to the worst scenario, fires will increase until the half of this century and it will become worse at the end of it. It could double or triple and even reach seven times the current number. Fires will affect both productive forests and less fertile steppes. Even though researchers from Inibioma were expecting an increase in the probability for forest fires in the Patagonia region, they did not expect that fires of a great magnitude and intensity could become more and more frequent. Instead of occurring once in a decade, they could happen every five or two years. Patagonia, stress the authors, is very vulnerable to climate variation and it will be affected by an increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation.
Between 2016 and 2021 a total amount of 34.608 fires occurred and 5.8 million hectares were destroyed. In 2024 this amount became 1,8 million of fires for a total of 7,8 million hectares of forest gone.
At the end of January 2025 a huge fire in Valle Magdalena started and in around two weeks it had burned more than 15 thousand hectares of Lanin National Park, which is at the border with a Chilean national park (Villarica) and they both share two inactive volcanoes, Lanin and Quetrupillan.
Institutional (lack of) response
In 2024 the National fire management service, Snmf underwent a cut in financial resources and only used around 25 per cent of the annual budget, 81 less than what it used in the same period in 2024. The ministry of Environment, also, only used 37 per cent of available funds. It had a budget of around 11,2 millions of dollars which was elevated to around 19 million dollars. However, they only used around 7 million dollars, even less than the initial budget.
According to a source, the Snmf only has a five-people staff and they have to deal with multiple tasks: to manage contracts with emergency planes, managing resources for provinces, response to citizens requests, check on the evolution of fire management plans. Some other responsibilities were appointed to the national parks administration (Apn), which has specific rules, budget and liability on fire control.
Moreover, the national legislation for fire management (Ley del manejo del fuego, approved in 2012), which is made up of around 26 thousands requirements to manage and prevent forest fires, is not fully applied. Out of 24 provinces, only two have up to date plans. According to an official report presented in 2023 and referring to the period 2016-2021, the application of such regulation is none or insufficient. reasons for it are multiple. When Snmf asked in August 2024 to the provinces to provide information about the implementation of the fire management plans, the result was clear: 3 did not respond; 11 do have one but it is not upgraded or not in force; 8 did not have one and only two (Formos and Entre Rios) do have one.
One is the autonomy accorded to the provinces for deciding how much of their budget the will use to implement such plans: this means that some provinces decide to invest more and others - most of them - decide to invest less or nothing and not upgrade the fire response plan. Another reason is a broader definancing of provinces, but there are also ideological reasons like climate negationism and the belief that there was no need to upgrade these procedures.
Biodiversity loss
In terms of biodiversity, such fires can seriously affect the biodiversity of the area. According to Inibioma, the specific flora and fauna of ecosystems in Patagonia is very vulnerable and not able to adapt to such aggressive changes and to the intense frequency of fires. The researches conduced an analysis on three different kind of forest: dry (with prevalence of Parà pine and cypress); sub-alpine forests (lenga beech and Nothofagus pumilio) and humid forests (coihue tree). Every tree has specific capacity to regenerate after fire according to the frequency of fires, but if those are increasing, some of the species are not able to regenerate because they lack the necessary time. For humid forests, it would be most difficult, but the worst case is the one of subalpine forests. These could withdraw. In general, forest could become just bushes or pastureland. The loss of forest would cause a chain effect of biodiversity loss in other species, including other plants, flowers and animals, but also the loss of ecosystemic effects like climatic regulation, hidro regulation and Co2 absorption.
What kind of solutions? The role of technology and collective civic society
In this context, some solutions arise and they vary from a cultural approach to a broader involvement of civic society. For example, as established in the law for fire management, the group of national brigades (Brigadas nacionales) are active and trained to operate on all national territories. On their side, there are sometimes specific initiatives led by volunteers. For example, in Corrientes this year the local government provided equipment for some volunteers, too, who helped to strategically put the response equipment along the streets and prepare landing sites for emergency helicopters. Private actors are involved especially in the financial aspect, providing resources to increment the quantity of adequate and updated tools.
On the prevention side, the role of research centers is pivotal. For example, the National institute for biodiversity and environment (Inibioma) developed an app for citizens that helps evaluate the risk level and vulnerability of an apartment or a house, especially those situated in a forest or close to trees. A similar tool has been developed in Corrients and it is called Alerta Corrientes. It allows everyone who is walking to report some suspect of fire, by sending pictures and a message to the central command. However, this tool is sometimes ineffective because some areas lack phone coverage.
In some north-western provinces (Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman and Catamarca) the local government created work tables including indigenous population. Such mechanisms meet regularly and structure a strategy through a holistic view of the phenomen, including also the vision for reconstruction after the fire.
Riproduzione riservata ®
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