Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the legal politics of neoliberal enclosure pitting the Mauricio Macri administration (2015-2019) and green philanthropist organizations against provincial lawmakers over the creation of three wilderness reserves in Argentine Patagonia.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the contentious legal politics employed by the center-right Mauricio Macri administration (2015-2019) and green philanthropist organizations—such as the Wyss Foundation and Fundación Rewilding Argentina—to create three wilderness reserves (reservas naturales silvestres) in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. These reserves were the result of private land donations made to the federal government and the use of executive decree powers by President Macri. Provincial lawmakers responded by: filing a lawsuit; legally re-designating these reserves as provincial protected areas; and passing a law to ban any subsequent creation of new protected areas for twelve months. The study focuses on the Piedra del Fraile (now Los Huemules) wilderness reserve located adjacent to Glaciers National Park and the mountain village of El Chaltén. I argue that the enclosure debate is shaped by regional histories of neoliberalism linked to anti-democratic federal prerogative concerning territory and resources. Previous research has highlighted how post-authoritarian conservation in Argentina has involved a shift toward institutional decentralization, community-based governance, and green development since the 1990s. This paper draws attention to how the project of post-authoritarian conservation can be short-circuited by the legal politics of enclosure being driven by the global conservation movement (such as “30x30”), which has centrally involved private land trusts in Patagonia.