Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 18
March 5, 2004

CONTENT:

1. REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN ARGENTINA

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REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN ARGENTINA
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The Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN) and Fundación Ciudad, asked the Environmental and Sustainable Development Secretariat of the Nation to provide information regarding the development and situation of the "Report on the state of the environment in Argentina", anticipated by the General Environmental Law Nº 25,675.

The Art. 18º of the said law, which is in force from 11/18/2002, decrees that "the Executive Power, through the competent organisms, will draw up an annual report regarding the environmental situation in the country, which will be presented to the Congress of the Nation", and such report "will include an analysis and assessment about the state of the environmental sustainability regarding the ecologic, economic, social and cultural matters of all the national territory".

In the other hand, it is important to outline that this presentation has its base in the arrangements stated by the Law Nº 25,831, which guarantees the free access of the citizens to the environmental public information that is in hands of the State, particularly the one regarding the state of the environment, or some of its natural or cultural components.

The environmental information is one of the main pillars to carry out a proper environmental management and to asses the result of the implemented policies and the ones anticipated for the tas in the medium and long term.

That is why, it is highly worrying that at present -more than a year of the validity of the law-, there are not concrete signs that let us know the reasons that have prevented the development and announcement of the Report on the state of the Environment in Argentina.

We hope that this request helps so that the State may commit itself to its duties regarding the environmental preservation, and to strengthen the citizen participation in the defense of their main rights.