Social multi-criteria evaluation of land-use scenarios in the Chaco Salteño: Complementing the three-pillar sustainability approach with environmental justice

Abstract

The increase in deforestation in Latin America is generating a great number of land-use conflicts. Diverse stakeholders, such as large-scale producers, indigenous people and small-scale famers, compete for land and contest its use. We applied the methodological framework of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) as it addresses one of the main problems confronted in land-use planning: the conflicting perceptions on what a land-use plan should achieve and how. The paper presents a SMCE of different land-use scenarios in the Argentinean Chaco, using two sets of criteria: one reflecting issues of sustainability and one tackling environmental justice.We found that the scenario envisioned by indigenous people is the most sustainable as well as environmentally just, followed by the family agriculture scenario. The findings further point to the strongly negative impact of the development scenario as well as the business as usual scenario. The results also suggest that the two sets of criteria complement each other. In the sustainability approach inequality is often only tackled through one criterion looking at distributional aspects, whereas environmental justice also accounts for issues of recognition and procedure. In a world, which is increasingly unequal, it is more important than ever to account for justice. Overall, the SMCE allows displaying the high environmental, social, cultural and economic costs of deforestation in the Argentinean Chaco, as well as the potential benefits of forest conservation in this area. Finally, our findings could assist in the creation of dialogues about alternative, more sustainable and environmentally just, futures.