The Federal Court of Resistencia formed an Interinstitutional Coordination Team to monitor, prevent and control clearing in Chaco and to guarantee the injunction banning illegal clearing in the Gran Chaco. The first report must be submitted in February 2027.
The Federal Court of Resistencia formed the "Equipo de Coordinación Interinstitucional para el Monitoreo, Prevención y Control de Desmontes en la Provincia del Chaco", a panel that will bring together provincial and national officials, public agencies, police forces, gendarmes, prosecutors and environmental organizations to guarantee compliance with the injunction banning illegal clearing in the Gran Chaco.
Judge Zunilda Niremperger ordered the creation of the committee with the aim of "ensure effective compliance with the injunction currently in force". That ban was initially issued in 2024, lifted after resistance from the production sector and reinstated in May by the Tribunal Federal de Casación, the country's highest criminal authority, within the framework of the "Mafia de los desmontes" mega-case, opened in 2024 and which already has about ten defendants.
The case file details the names of those who will sit on the panel. Representing the Ministerio Público Fiscal Federal will be attorneys Juan Gabriel Giménez and Agustina Dragell; for the province of Chaco, the undersecretary of Forestry Development, Oscar Navarro, and the director of Forests, Gustavo García; and representing the National Environmental Authority will be forestry engineer Eduardo Manghi.
The Administración de Parques Nacionales will seat the superintendent of Copo National Park, Néstor Arriola, and the director of the Northern Region, Sergio Arias Valdecantos. The Gendarmería Nacional will be represented by its chief, Commander General Claudio Brilloni. The Asociación Argentina de Abogados/as Ambientalistas will also join the team, with Fabián Maggi as its representative.
"It is a highly significant resolution. It is the first time a committee of this nature has been formed to control illegal clearing and enforce the current ban," Maggi said.
The Gran Chaco ecoregion, which takes in native forests in Chaco, Formosa and Santiago del Estero, is one of the epicenters of the fastest-advancing deforestation: it loses some 40,000 hectares every six months, an area equivalent to twice the city of Buenos Aires. Environmental groups have denounced the co-opting of control mechanisms by sectors interested in moving into protected areas.
One of the most recent examples was the case of 1,800 hectares cleared on the boundary with the Loro Hablador Provincial Natural Park, reported weeks ago by environmental organizations. "In light of that critical situation, we asked the judge to create a control committee. We hope it translates into real protection for the Gran Chaco forest and that we manage to stop further clearing," Maggi said.
The resolution establishes that the exchange of information will be paramount, through satellite monitoring, early warning and territorial surveillance systems, with fluid and immediate communication to coordinate actions in the face of possible irregularities.
As for police powers, the court requires the Gendarmería Nacional to "strengthen the human, technical, technological and operational resources allocated to surveillance, monitoring, preventive patrolling and early detection of possible clearing", and to assess adding personnel, vehicles, drones and other technological tools. Likewise, it asks the Chaco security minister to "strengthen police units with rural and environmental duties".
When illegal actions are detected, the resolution requires that every alert be reported immediately to the provincial Dirección de Bosques, so that it "order on-site verifications and adopt preventive, inspection or activity-halt administrative measures". The Ministerio Público Fiscal must intervene when there are possible "crimes or breaches of the judicial injunction". The ruling also provides for "urgent judicial intervention" to avoid delays in measures that require authorization, such as raids or seizures.
To monitor the work, which will begin in the coming weeks, the Dirección de Bosques of the Province of Chaco and the Ministerio Público Fiscal Federal must submit periodic reports to the court.
Those reports will detail the alerts detected, the administrative, preventive or investigative measures adopted and the difficulties recorded in the process. The first must be delivered in the first half of February 2027, and thereafter they will be submitted on a quarterly basis.
