2023-05-06 00:48:20
After the public denunciations made by the residents of the Multisectorial Santa Catalinahe Buenos Aires Ministry of Environment issued a statement rejecting the decision of the National University of La Plata to put up a property for sale within the Santa Catalina Provincial Nature Reservea 700-hectare property that is one of the last green lungs in the southern Conurbano, with wetlands, pastures and native forest.
He bidding document was published yesterday by National University of La Plata (UNLP) in which it indicates that offers will be received until June 2, with a mandatory visit to the property called for May 23. According to the specifications, the value of the property is 1,169,500,000 pesos, as of October 2022.
“Saint Catherine is one of the last remaining green lungs in the south of Greater Buenos Aires, on the border between Lomas de Zamora and Esteban Echeverría. It is a wetland that was created after many residents fought to have it declared a natural reserve,” warned Claudia Piedrabuena, a member of the multi-sectoral neighborhood group, in dialogue with the La Plata portal Pulso Noticias. The residents called for a urgent assembly for this Saturday at 16 at the Sociedad de Fomento Libertador Gral San Martín, in the Lomense neighborhood of Parque Barón.
The provincial Ministry of the Environment, headed by Daniela Vilarwas echoed after the call for tenders and issued a statement in which it indicates the “surprise and concern” and highlighted that the provincial portfolio is the Authority for the Application of the Reserve –created by Ley 14.294— in coordination with other public institutions such as ACUMAR and the municipality of Lomas de Zamora, which since 1992 declared a small portion of 17 hectares as a municipal nature reserve.
“The plots that make up the Santa Catalina Reserve are private domainTherefore, we urge the owners of each one of them to cooperate with the Ministry to protect the Santa Catalina Reserve, reaching a joint use agreement between the parties,” Minister Vilar convened and noted that The UNLP’s decision “departs from the conservation objectives that the Reserve must meet.”
The property, located between the tracks of the Roca railway (Temperley-Haedo branch line) y Route 4, brings together the municipal reserve, private properties of the UNLP and also of the National University of Lomas de Zamora. It is not the first time that the house of high studies from La Plata disregards the environmental value of Santa Catalina, since in 2008, it sold 308 hectares to the waste company Covelia SA
In the portion of the property that the UNLP sold to Covelia is the zone of the Santa Catalina Lagoon. The Pilmayqueñ organization, which integrates the Multisectorial Santa Catalinarepeatedly denounced and took legal action against the company’s attempt to proceed with illegal filling of the lagoon, which would impact not only the fauna and flora but also the ecosystem services that this wetland offers in the face of floods.
In this case, the UNLP document acknowledges that The property for sale is included in the Provincial Reserve area and must comply with the regulations of Law 12,704, which regulates the areas of “Protected Landscape of Provincial Interest”. However, the experience of Covelia sparks alerts among the neighbors and in the Ministry of the Environment.
The current Law 14,294, which converted the natural area into a provincial reserve, was sanctioned in 2011 after a long fight by the local community after the sale of the 300-hectare property to the waste collection company. “We need the air to breathe, the water to live and we have to take care of the land and heal it because it gives us sustenance, it is something extremely important,” said Piedrabuena.
The norm sanctioned in 2011, and not yet regulated, describes the natural value of this green lung of the Conurbano as follows: “more than 500 hectares (has) of green space, 25 has of lagoon, 50 has of low grasslands, 45 hectares of mixed planted forest, 3 hectares of forest remaining from felling, 172 species of birds (45% of the province of Buenos Aires and 14% of the country), more than 700 species of plants, more than 400 species of fungi and algae , at least 60 species of butterflies, 17 of mammals, 10 of fish, 7 of reptiles, 9 of amphibians, more than 60 families of invertebrates represented. The southernmost specimens of the country of the tembatari tree”.
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