Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 26
April 8, 2005

CONTENT:

1. FARN TOGETHER WITH GREENPEACE AND FUNDACION VIDA
   SILVESTRE PRESENTED A COMPLAINT APPEAL BEFORE THE
   SUPREME COURT DEFENDING SALTA'S RESERVE
   
   
2. ELECTRONIC DIALOGUE: PROPOSALS FOR THE NEXT
   SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS

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FARN TOGETHER WITH GREENPEACE AND FUNDACION VIDA
SILVESTRE PRESENTED A COMPLAINT APPEAL BEFORE THE
SUPREME COURT DEFENDING SALTA'S RESERVE
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Last April 4th, Fundación Vida Silvestre and Greenpeace, with the sponsorship of the lawyers from FARN's Citizen Control Program, presented a complaint appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in which they ask for the cancellation of the non-legal protection of the Protected Natural Area in General Pizarro, Province of Salta.

This appeal is a new instance of the judicial procedure initiated in June 2004, which was presented before the Supreme Court of Salta, in order to avoid the transformation of the important Natural Area into a zone of agricultural and farming production.

It is very important to outline that this appeal aroused due to the rejection of the action taken by the Maximum Provincial Court that announced that the non-legal protection and sail of the Provincial Reserve was clearly justified because of the environmental damage this preserve presents.

The significant and meticulous vote of Dr. María Cristina Garrós Martínez maintained that (and being part of the minority of the votes) "… the constitutional agency of Art. 41 of the National Constitution and Art. 30 of the Constitution of Salta imposed an environmental protection disposition that according to law 24,375 (biodiversity protection), law 25,675 (minimum standards of environmental protection) established that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an obligation of all the projects with incidence on the environment, with citizen participation. That, together with the stipulated by the provincial law nº 7070, configures a clear obstacle for the consolidation of the reserve's sail, and also constitutes "a harmonic group of regulations with a common goal that is the protection of the environment, which must be respected by the judge when pronouncing in the concrete case".

Finally, facing the Province's main argument saying that the reserve was deteriorated, Dr. Garrós Martínez her vote considered that "is precisely the environmental impact assessment that will determinate if the conditions taken into account in order to protect the lots 32 and 33, as a zone of reserve, subsist or not, as well as it will show how much the sail of the lots will affect the environment", for what it is concluded that such study, together with the celebration of the public hearing (citizen participation) and the intervention of the Environmental Provincial Council is indispensable, and is something previous to the sanction of any law of non- legal protection.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Complain Appeal
   http://www.farn.org.ar/arch/rext_reserva1.pdf

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ELECTRONIC DIALOGUE: PROPOSALS FOR THE NEXT SUMMIT
OF THE AMERICAS
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A "Foro Deliberativo on-line" (E-Dialogue) on Environment and Sustainable Development will be being carried out from April 4th to May 6th, and will be moderated by FARN. Its goal is to elaborate proposals regarding the environmental problematic in the continent in order to be considered in the next Summit of the Americas.

Civil Society was convoked to participate between April 4th and May 6th in an electronic dialogue in order to formulate proposals to be considered by the Office for the Summit Procedures in the American State Organization (Organización de Estados Americanos -OEA) and the Group of Revision and Implementation of the Summit of the Americas (GRIC). The goal is to achieve that the proposals may be included in the agenda of the next Summit of the Americas ("Creating employment in order to confront the poverty and to strengthen the democratic governance "), which will be developed in the City of Mar del Plata, Argentina, during November 2005.

We would like to invite you and your organization to participate in this e-dialogue, taking into account the instructions that you will see in this newsletter.

When analyzing the environmental instructions for the development of the Summit, among the subjects we can find: Biodiversity, Deforestation, Citizen Participation, Water and Air Pollution, Ozone, Climatic Change, Clean Energies and Trade and Environment. The final goal is the formulation of proposals and action lines for the "Oficina para el Proceso de Cumbres en la Organización de Estados Americanos" and the "Groups of Revision and Implementation of the Summit of the Americas", for the final redaction of the documents to be subscribed in the next meeting "Summit of the Americas"

It is a requirement imposed by the organizers that the participants must not be registered as integrants/members of a state entity.

To participate, it is necessary:

1. To go to http://foroscumbres.redinter.org/
   
   
2. To register your username and password. The registration is at the top of the screen.
   
   
3. To fill this electronic formulary with the details you think important to publish (name of your organization, contact information, name and surname, etc). This will be very useful for the participants of the e-dialogue because they will be able to write to you with better fluency. We must clarify that the personals details you do not want to be published in the web, you do not have to write them.
   
   
4. With your username and password you will be able to register yourself in the forums, writing your contributions.