Bulldozing all opposition, the government of the northwestern Argentine province of Salta broke up a 20,000-hectare nature reserve into plots and auctioned them off to farming and ranching companies. Nearly 3,000 people living in the protected area of Pizarro created by the Salta government in 1995 will now have to relocate.

In March, the office of Governor Juan Carlos Romero sent a bill to the provincial legislature to change the legal status of the reserve and put it up for sale. The argument offered: urgent need for revenues to repave the province's roads. The government divided the reserve into seven plots and sold them to three different companies, which will clear the land to expand the agricultural frontier. Defending its move the government argues that Pizarro is a degraded reserve that has been plundered by the locals.

The communities living within the reserve and the people who use the forest resources have filed a petition invoking indigenous rights to land, participation in the management of natural resources and the right of all to live in a healthy environment. A court case to determine the legality of the sale was also underway, but the petition to halt the auction was denied. Legal claims filed by environmental groups are still awaiting rulings. These groups staged protests meets and demonstrations. "The national government has known for three months that the Pizarro reserve was going to be sold and did nothing to stop it,' said Emiliano Ezcurra, representative of environmental group Greenpeace-Argentina.

Local daily La Naci