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In Chaco, one of the provinces with higher deforestation rate in Argentina, the trajectory of this indicator was not homogenous. Besides, the decision-making of provincial state had different paths to respond to this problem. Thus, this paper tries to answer what the causes that influence in the state fluctuations in the implementation of environmental policies are. Throughout a case study in which I compare four different moments between 2008 and 2019, I argue that the state fluctuations depend on the resolution of the conflict between two coalition (protectionist vs. productivist). State responds favorably to one or another when one of them deploys three strategies together: coordination, institutional and public pressure strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations worldwide pledged emissions reductions (Nationally Determined Contributions-NDCs) to avert the threat of climate change, and agreed to periodically review these pledges to strengthen their level of ambition. Previous studies have analyzed NDCs largely in terms of their implied contribution to limit global warming, their implications on the energy sector or on mitigation costs. Nevertheless, a gap in the literature exists regarding the understanding of implications of the NDCs on countries' Energy-Water-Land nexus resource systems. The present paper explores this angle within the regional context of Latin America by employing the Global Change Assessment Model, a state-of-the-art integrated assessment model capable of representing key system-wide interactions among nexus sectors and mitigation policies. By focusing on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, we stress potential implications on national-level water demands depending on countries' strategies to enforce energy-related emissions reductions and their interplays with the land sector. Despite the differential implications of the Paris pledges on each country, increased water demands for crop and biomass irrigation and for electricity generation stand out as potential trade-offs that may emerge under the NDC policy. Hence, this study underscores the need of considering a nexus resource planning framework (known as "Nexus Approach") in the forthcoming NDCs updating cycles as a mean to contribute toward sustainable development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In developing countries, conflict between the objectives of environmental policies and those focused on economic development, a low availability of human resources and infrastructure, and the lack of continuity and incentives, contribute to the inability to successfully implement environmental policies. Moreover, in these countries, population growth in the peri-urban areas has resulted in serious water pressures, poor water management, and severe non-point source pollution. The aim of this paper is to implement a procedure of aquifer pollution risk assessment for identifying priority areas in an urban-rural interface based on multi-criteria decision tools. In this sense, a multi-criteria decision model was designed, in terms of environmental and socio-economic criteria and sub-criteria relevant to water resource management, by using the software Criterium Decision Plus 4.0. This model was applied to the northwestern peri-urban area of Mar del Plata City, Argentina, which is embedded in the second most important fruit-horticultural belt of the country. Here, groundwater is the only source of water supply. The proposed decision model allowed establishing a ranking of priority areas for defining action guidelines in order to minimize the risk of pollution of the aquifer. Aquifer pollution hazard criterion mainly contributes to alternatives classified as very high priority whilst in the case of low and very low priority classes, social vulnerability criterion mostly influences the final results. The first alternatives will require an intervention in a short-term time horizon, and the last ones must be monitored in order to avoid their shift to a worse environmental condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Intergovernmental coordination is a key factor to achieve a homogeneous implementation in national policies. However, the bibliography of coordination argues that the horizontal coordination (among jurisdictions of the same level of government) does not occur. On the contrary, this paper asks: Which factors produces that the subnational jurisdictions decide to act together to enforce a national environmental policy? Based on comparative analysis of the formulation process of the adequation laws to the National Forest Law in Argentina, I argue that the provinces act together when there are a regularized and legitim institutional frame available and a structures of incentives that produce that the locals politicians decide formulate and enforce an environmental policy in theirs jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of the main issues of environmental or ecosystem services regulations in Argentina, and a brief reference of a selection of Latin American countries laws (Peru and Costa Rica). We implemented the documental observation and normative comparative methods. One of the main results is that during last year many bills of laws were presented at the National Congress, which guidelines might be useful as precedents. Notwithstanding, in parallel an integral evaluation must be made in order to state if some valid environmental laws should be or not abolished, in order to avoid new contradictions. One of the main limitations for the argentine case, is that there is not a specific regulation about environmental services. We can conclude that in the case of other countries of the region which already have regulated the ecosystem services payment, there are some relevant issues which might be taken into account for future laws and/or public policies in Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since environmental topic was included in the international agenda, expectations were created about the role of Law as a discipline and tool to mitigate, prevent and compensate anthropogenic ecosystem damages. In this paper there will be an approach to an issue which was little addressed in social, legal and environmental sciences: legal-institutional fragmentation as an obstacle to achieve sustainable development goals, especially in water management. It was implemented as a documental-bibliographical, descriptive and diachronic design. The methodology used is qualitative, mainly legal hermeneutics. Preliminary, we concluded that regulatory chaos which was applied to the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, allowed failed institutional settlements creating an adverse scenery for the environmental paradigm application in different dimensions: to favour corrupted actions, to difficult information access and authorities petitions right, because they both represent an obstacle to achieve citizen's participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental is the property of CIEMAT, through its Centro Internacional de Estudios de Derecho Ambiental (CIEDA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ambiente & Sociedade is the property of Nepam Unicamp and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A growing global trend of judicializing environmental policy has been received with optimism, and in the context of democracies in transition, many have found in an active Supreme Court a potential solution to political impasses. However, as the judiciary is the least democratic of the three branches of government, what impact does judicialization have on democratic accountability? We claim that judicialization generates accountability losses in two ways. First, theoretically, when the Court takes on managerial functions that extend beyond its adjudicative role, it distorts its horizontal accountability functions. Second, empirically, when the Court becomes involved in policy formulation, effectiveness is not guaranteed yet there are no vertical accountability sanctions the polity can impose on judges. We illustrate this argument with an emblematic and instructive case of judicialization of environmental policy in Argentina. We conclude that judicialization to remedy policy failures undermines democratic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]