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Contribution short abstract

This study reconstructs the environmental history of the caldenal woodlands in central Argentina by analyzing the historical, socioeconomic, technological, and legal factors driving land-use change, revealing the dynamics behind landscape transformation and guiding conservation efforts.

Contribution long abstract

The woodlands dominated by Neltuma caldenia (caldén) in the province of San Luis, central Argentina, have witnessed ongoing tension between productive expansion and environmental preservation. As a result, these remaining woodlands are now immersed in an agricultural matrix, forming a landscape that reflects a long-standing but under-documented territorial process. This study analyzes the historical, socioeconomic, technological, and legal factors associated with the transformation of the caldenal woodlands from historical and subjectivity-based perspectives. To address this aim, we conducted an exhaustive literature review, interviewed local actors, and analyzed historical and current cartography. For earlier periods, no satellite records exist; however, narratives from 19th-century explorers indicate that woodlands were already being used for railway construction following the arrival of the railroad to San Luis in 1875, providing wood for tracks and fuel for locomotives. Later, over the 20th century, our cartographic analysis shows that agricultural land increased by about 83%, replacing natural vegetation. This phenomenon could be associated with transformations in the agrarian structure (where interviewees mentioned that deforestation was considered an improvement) and the adoption of no-till technologies. Although woodland protection laws were implemented during the same period, their effectiveness was limited. Thus, the environmental history of the caldenal spans from the traditional use of woodlands by Indigenous peoples to the consolidation of a production model that links global logics with local dynamics, now increasingly shaped by “green” economies. Historicizing socio-environmental processes and actor–nature relations provide insights for territorial planning that values the caldenal’s ecological, cultural, and historical significance.