Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Science and Policy

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci

Valuing nature in Argentina: Transforming or accommodating the

status quo?
Hayley Stevenson a, *, Juliana Peixoto Batista b, Julieta Godfrid c
a
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
b
Latin American School of Social Sciences FLACSO, Argentina
c
Universidad de Playa Ancha, Chile

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The environmental field is characterized by a proliferation of concepts that aim to promote new practices and
Ecosystem Services more sustainable development models. It is important to understand whether these concepts achieve their
Argentina transformative objectives or linger around as empty buzzwords. This paper analyses the concept of ecosystem
Environmental concepts
services, which seeks to promote conservation by capturing the value of the services that nature provides to
Political economy
Institutional uptake
humans. By analysing its translation into practice and policy in the context of extractivist and commodity-based
economies, we reveal its limited transformative potential. Our analysis of three Argentine provinces shows how
the concept is not fulfilling its advocates’ expectations and has not been able to provide new tools to rethink
economic activities in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. By contrast, the concept has been applied in
ways that accommodate the local status quo and the interests of hegemonic actors. Future environmental con­
ceptual innovation ought to incorporate deeper awareness of the political and economic conditions that affect a
concept’s translation into practice and policy.

1. Introduction
The concept of sustainable development has underpinned environ­
mental governance for thirty years, guiding global, national and local
strategies. But continuing environmental degradation and the climate
crisis confirm that reconciling economic growth, social inclusion, and
environmental protection is extremely difficult. Against this background
we see considerable conceptual innovation as scholars and practitioners
try to inspire new ways to understand unsustainability and promote
sustainable transformations. “Transformation” captures the idea that we
need to move beyond marginal and incremental changes in socio-
ecological systems and instead seek fundamental and enduring
changes in the ways humans interact with the biophysical world (Feola
2015: 377; Patterson et al., 2017). Together with other concepts
including “ecological footprint”, “circular economy” and “green
growth”, “ecosystem services” has been proposed as a concept that can
fundamentally reshape how we understand socio-ecological in­
teractions. Concepts are not merely semantic; they are “mechanisms
through which we apprehend the world, vest it with meaning, reason
about issues, argue over the path forward and act” (Meadowcroft and
Fiorino, 2017: 2). Concepts can be consequential, but it is unclear why
some produce change, and others do not (Meadowcroft and Fiorino:,
2017). Studies of policy and institutional diffusion remind us that con­
cepts may stick while losing or changing their meaning. Failing to un­
derstand the dynamics of how concepts are translated into practice and
policy, and what happens when they “land somewhere” (andMassarella,
2020: 385), risks reducing conceptual innovation to the production of
fads and buzzwords (Redford et al., 2013).
Fads are concepts or approaches that are “embraced enthusiasti­
cally” with high levels of expectation and funding, before eventually
being abandoned or replaced with the next new idea (Redford et al.,
2013: 437, Asiyanbi and Massarella, 2020). Buzzwords, similarly, are
vague concepts that “float free of concrete referents, to be filled with
meaning by their users, …shelter(ing) multiple agendas, providing room
for manoeuvre and space for contestation” (Cornwall, 2007: 474). Some
buzzwords appear and quickly disappear, some “dip in and out of
fashion” (ibid: 472), and others long remain in vogue, often despite
“poor outcomes and widespread criticisms” (andMassarella,2020).
Concepts are often launched with specific objectives which may be lost
in the process of translation into practice and policy. When a concept’s
terminology is retained despite a failure to achieve its original objec­
tives, it risks becoming a buzzword.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: hstevenson@utdt.edu (H. Stevenson), jpeixoto@flacso.org.ar (J.P. Batista), JulietaGodfrid@hotmail.com (J. Godfrid).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.01.002
Received 27 April 2021; Received in revised form 29 December 2021; Accepted 5 January 2022
Available online 2 February 2022
1462-9011/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Stevenson et al.
In this paper we analyse the case of ecosystem services. Scholars are
increasingly questioning whether this concept is delivering on its
promise of incentivising conservation (Keenan et al., 2019, Allan et al.
forthcoming, Stevenson et al., 2021, van Oudenhoven et al., 2018,
Wright et al., 2017). Our analysis of three provinces in Argentina sug­
gests that its original conservation objectives have been lost in the
translation process, such that it has become little more than a buzzword.
Many scholars are concerned about the neoliberalisation of nature (e.g.
McAfee, 2012), but we show that valuation is being resisted or used
rhetorically rather than as a way to actually calculate the economic
benefits of conservation.1
In the 1990 s, ecologists and economists proposed “ecosystem ser­
vices” as a new concept that they hoped could incentivize conservation
in ways that previous approaches had failed to do (Craig et al., 2019).
Proponents believed that a new economic framing of nature was
necessary to reach economic and finance ministers (Daily, 1997; Cos­
tanza et al., 1997; Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2016). They hoped the
language of values, balances, flows, and services would resonate with
decision-makers and facilitate nature’s integration into planning (Craig
et al., 2019). The concept of ecosystem services could promote greater
awareness of nature’s values and provide the tools to calculate these
values. If the “true value” of nature was recognised, this would trans­
form the economic practices that lead to biodiversity loss because
preservation would be more rational than over-exploitation.
The concept was received favourably within the international policy
community, particularly with the launch of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (1999–2005) which provided greater conceptual clarity by
defining four categories: “provisioning services such as food and water;
regulating services such as regulation of floods, drought, land degra­
dation, and disease; supporting services such as soil formation and
nutrient cycling; and cultural services such as recreational, spiritual,
religious and other nonmaterial benefits". (MEA 2005, 3). This bio­
physical framework inspired the G8 to launch its TEEB initiative (The
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) to develop methodologies to
value these services. Advocates point out that economic valuation and
pricing are not necessary or exclusive elements of the concept (Costanza
et al. 2017: 9–10). Nevertheless, since TEEB, the ”cascade model”
(depicting progression from identifying biophysical structures or pro­
cesses, their functions, services, benefits, and finally their value) has
become prominent (Potschin-Young et al., 2018; TEEB, 2010).
Throughout the 21st century, this concept has been translated into
domestic and international policy and practices. Most research on
ecosystem services has focused on ecological functions and processes
and the methodological aspects of valuation (Droste et al., 2018).
Research on governance has become more prominent but focuses mostly
on critical perspectives of valuation as a neoliberal and commodifying
approach (Droste et al., 2018; e.g., McAfee, 2012; Fletcher & Büscher
2017; Van Hecken et al., 2018). It is only recently that we have begun to
accumulate evidence about the extent of uptake and the impact of
ecosystem service-based governance (Jax et al., 2018; Nahuelhual et al.,
2018; Robinne et al., 2019; Russel et al., 2016; Saarikoski et al., 2018;
Weyland et al., 2019).
Our aim in this paper is to understand what happened to the
ecosystem services concept when it “landed in” three Argentinean
provinces. The subnational context is important because this is where
change is often promoted through territorial initiatives. The particular
context of this paper is important because if conceptual innovation is
going to successfully promote conservation, it needs to achieve its ob­
jectives in extractivist and commodity-based economies, which these
1
We recognize that the social desirability of valuing nature in economic
terms is contested. This debate is widely covered in the existing literature (e.g.,
Peixoto Batista et al., 2019, Craig et al., 2019) and we do not contribute to it in
this paper. We evaluate the concept’s application in the terms anticipated by its
original advocates.
85
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
provinces represent. This is a challenging context for conservation.
Argentina is the second largest country in Latin America with high levels
of biodiversity, but the intensive exploitation of natural resources is the
main source of export revenue. The National Biodiversity Strategy rec­
ognises that the country’s ecoregions “provide key ecosystem services to
a wide range of productive sectors… that together play a leading role in
the national economy” (Presidencia de la Nación, 2016: 7). But the main
causes of biodiversity loss are intensive agriculture (soy production and
cattle), mining, and urban developments (Presidencia de la Nación,
2016). As one of the world’s largest exporters of soy, maize, and wheat,
Argentina’s economy depends on these commodities (OEC 2019). Many
provinces also depend on the intensive exploitation of natural resources,
such as petroleum, mining and forestry. In a context combining high
levels of poverty and external debt, the country seems trapped in a sit­
uation whereby, in the short term, its natural resources are worth more
when exploited rather than conserved, but, in the long term, this
exploitation undermines the country’s productive capacity, and ulti­
mately its economic conditions. Although the concept of ecosystem
services has not been rejected in Argentina (Peixoto Batista et al., 2019),
its translation into practice and policy is shaped and constrained by
existing political-economic conditions. Far from incentivising conser­
vation as its original proponents hoped, the concept is used only in ways
that do not threaten the interests of productive sectors. We see protec­
tion and reinforcement of the unsustainable status quo, rather than
transformation. To explain this situation we combine diffusion theory
with neo-Gramscian insights, which offer a deeper analysis of the
political-economic context.
This paper has six further sections. In Section 2 we explain the
theoretical debates that inform our analysis. In Section 3 we introduce
our case studies and methodological approach. Section 4 analyses efforts
to translate the ecosystem services concept into practice and policy,
followed in Section 5 with a comparative discussion. We conclude by
reflecting on the implications of our findings for future conceptual
innovation in environmental governance.
2. Debating the uptake and application of new concepts
The processes through which ideas are transformed into policies and
practices are studied from various theoretical perspectives, and, unfor­
tunately, within various disciplinary silos. Lack of cross-disciplinary
conversation has slowed our collective understanding. International
Relations scholars use rationalist and constructivist theories to explain
norm diffusion across states. Their original models of norm diffusion
(such as the life cycle and spiral) assumed that norms remained stable
throughout diffusion (Finnemore and Sikkink, 1998; Risse et al., 1999).
Later work captured how norm meanings can change at the point of
localisation (Acharya 2004, Stevenson 2013), but the fact that this could
be described as “pioneering” (Restoy and Elbe, 2021) is a sign of our
siloed scholarship.
The potential for ideas to change during the diffusion process has
long been recognised in the fields of Science and Technology Studies
(STS), Organizational Studies, and by institutional analysts more
generally. STS analyses “how and why ideas, artifacts, and practices
come to be institutionalized or disrupted; what explains the scale at
which technoscience comes to have meaning, is struggled over and
travels; and by what means materiality and cultural value(s) shape sci­
ence and technology” (Kleinman and Moore, 2014: 2). The concept of
translation, initially developed by sociologists of science, Michel Callon
and Bruno Latour, has been influential in this field.2 Callon (1984)
conceptualises translation as a process which, if successful, creates
“convergences and homologies”. From this perspective, an actor first
proposes a problematisation (defining the problem and solution), then
2
For an overview of the diverse theoretical work inspired by Callon and
Latour, see Wæraas and Nielsen (2016).
H. Stevenson et al.
seeks to build a network by convincing other actors that it is in their
interests to adopt the solution, then implements mechanisms to main­
tain the network by continuously ensuring that everyone is playing their
intended role. Like Callon, Latour understands translation as a contin­
uous process but not as one that creates “convergences and homologies”.
Instead, translation is a process of “continuous transformation” in which
the original idea is not faithfully transmitted from one actor to another
but altered by each actor it encounters (Latour, 1984: 266–8). If an actor
decides to use the idea to pursue their own goals, the most likely
outcome is that they “slowly (turn) it into something completely
different” (ibid: 268). Such assumptions are also evident in the work of
institutionalists who began revising claims of isomorphism and homo­
geneity in the 1980s (Di Maggio & Powell 1983; Campbell, 2004: 83).3
When entrepreneurs introduce new ideas, these are “combined with
already existing institutional practices” in a process that Campbell also
calls “translation” (2004: 79–85). Campbell argues that “the degree to
which diffusing ideas are translated or not into local practice and,
therefore, the extent to which they precipitate change depend on local
institutional contexts, power struggles, leadership support, and imple­
mentation capacities” (ibid: 82). Sometimes change might be “sym­
bolic”, other times “substantive” (ibid: 85).
Organization scholars have shown how ideas are “adapted” to fit the
particular technical, cultural and political conditions of distinct orga­
nisations. How a new idea is adopted and adapted depends, in part, on
the degree of (mis)fit between the idea and these conditions (Ansari
et al., 2010: 67).4 An idea will be rejected or adapted if it is incongruent
with existing technologies, values, beliefs, and cultural practices, and/or
the interests and agendas of the actors involved or affected. One
mechanism of adaptation is compromise: “…a response that accommo­
dates the political demands of a heterogeneous political environment,
leading to implementation of less faithful and less extensive forms of the
practice” (Ansari et al., 2010: 80–1). Incongruence can reduce a concept
to a buzzword. This is evident in Stevenson et al.’s analysis of uptake of
the ecosystem services concept within international organisations
(2021). They found that a range of structural, organizational, and
agent-level constraints limited the “practical fit” of this concept. Despite
normative resonance, it has not provided “a clear and actionable pro­
gram” for solving problems of biodiversity loss (Ansari et al., 2010). As
such, the concept is used mostly in malleable rhetorical ways and
capacity-building programs rather than in the ways it was initially
intended.
Given our interest in analysing the adoption and adaptation of the
ecosystem services concept in an extractivist and commodity-exporting
context, we are particularly attentive to the impact of economic condi­
tions and their interaction with social and political conditions. Looking
beyond diffusion theories, we draw insights from the neo-Gramscian
school of political economy, which has made important contributions
to our understanding of environmental politics (e.g., Paterson, 2000;
Levy and Newell, 2005; Levy and Egan, 2003; Newell, 2018). From this
perspective we can appreciate that although ideas “land” in specific
places with their own particular contexts, an important aspect of this
context is its position within the international economic system. This is
particularly relevant for understanding the “power struggles” that
Campbell (2004) identifies as a key factor affecting translation. Glo­
balised production systems produce asymmetric power relations within
3
We note that there are various strands of institutionalism; this section refers
to Campbell’s work which draws on insights from all.
4 5
The extensive literature on policy implementation identifies multiple fac­
tors that affect policy implementation
86
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
and between countries, which affect how ideas are translated and which
interests are prioritised. Newell draws on neo-Gramscian theory to show
how sustainability transitions – specifically energy transitions - are
enabled and constrained by “underlying political, historical and mate­
rial factors” (2018: 28).5 Social actors compete on this terrain, pro­
moting and resisting change (ibid; also Newell 2021). Newell uses the
Gramscian concept of “trasformismo” to explain how incumbent actors
with a vested interest in the status quo seek “to narrow the debate to
questions of incremental transition… (that) do not disrupt prevailing
social relations and distributions of political power” (Newell, 2018:
28–9). Threatening ideas are “assimilated” and “domesticated” to fit
dominant policies (Cox, 1983; Newell, 2018). This capacity to co-opt is
produced by combinations of material, institutional, and discursive
power (Newell, 2018). In combination with insights from the sociology
of science, we can see how the original transformational objectives of
sustainability concepts are lost when they are translated into practice
and policy. In the case studies below, we show how the ecosystem ser­
vices concept was reduced to a buzzword when translated into two
provinces. In a third province the concept was resisted because it could
not be reconciled with incumbent economic interests.
3. Case study approach
We selected three northern provinces in Argentina on the basis of
their economic and environmental profiles. In each case, nature pro­
vides important ecosystem services which are threatened by extractive
sectors. In Santiago del Estero (hereafter, Santiago), agriculture and
farming underpin the economy. Their expansion is the key driver of
deforestation and bushland clearing, leading to the loss of multiple
ecosystem services, including CO2 absorption, wildlife habitats, shade,
and water regulation. Misiones has experienced similar agricultural
expansion, largely for monocultural production of yerba, tea and to­
bacco.6 A large forestry sector for the production of paper pulp and other
wood products exists alongside agriculture. The forestry sector is not
widely perceived as a threat in environmental debates because it en­
gages in reforestation (albeit with exotic species). In San Juan, mining
accounts for about 70% of the province’s exports (Ministerio de Haci­
enda 2019) but poses a threat to mountain-based glaciers, which are an
important water source for local communities and ecosystems (Scarpati
et al., 2014).
Two of these cases (Santiago and Misiones) involve application of the
national forest law, the principal instrument used to apply the ecosystem
services concept in Argentina. This national law, enacted in 2007
following a campaign by environmental NGOs, intends to promote
improvement, restoration, conservation, utilisation and sustainable
management of environmental services (National Law 26331: article 1).
Environmental services are defined in this law as the tangible and
intangible benefits generated by ecosystems that are necessary for the
survival of natural and biological systems, and the wellbeing of the
Argentine people (National Law 26331: article 5). The forest law
required each province to prepare a land-use plan for native forest areas,
classifying forests into three categories: red (high ecological value;
deforestation prohibited), yellow (medium ecological value; sustainable
use of the forest permitted); and green (low ecological value; defores­
tation permitted). However, the law did not define ecological value on
the basis of specific criteria. Instead, it required each province to carry
out participatory-based Native Forests Territorial Planning (OTBN:
The concepts of transition and transformation are defined in diverse ways
and often used interchangeably or without clear definition and distinction.
Some critical sustainability scholars have moved away from the language of
transition given its connotation that change is a managed and orderly process
(Stirling, 2015).
6
Yerba (Ilex paraguariensis) is a native plant widely consumed in South
America in the form of tea drunk from a gourd.
H. Stevenson et al.
Ordenamiento Territorial de Bosque Nativo) to define and assign ecological
values (National Law 26331). Without clear criteria, implementation of
the law was never going to produce “homologous” results across prov­
inces, to use the language of Callon 1984. The law also established a
national fund through which the national government would compen­
sate provinces and landowners that protected native forests and bush­
land (Langbehn and Schmidt, 2017).7 This fund partly resembles the
type of compensation that the original proponents of the ecosystem
services concept had in mind: payment for ecosystem services (PES), and
has been rhetorically presented as such. However, unlike PES theories,
the amounts available do not correspond to calculations of monetary
value but rather support implementation of sustainable management
plans on affected land. In practice it is thus more akin to an “an
ecological fiscal transfer” than a PES scheme (Verde Selva 2020).
The fund is the first and only national-level mechanism for conser­
vation compensation. However, this objective has been lost in imple­
mentation. Payments for approved projects are typically delayed and
provide a fraction of the amount promised. The law stipulates provision
of at least 0.3% of the annual national budget, but the assigned amounts
are considerably less. In the 2020 budget, only 3.25% of the stipulated
amount was allocated to the fund (FARN 2019).
In the following section, we review each province’s experience with
translating the ecosystem services concept into practice and policy. A
comparative analysis then provides insights into how the concept’s
transformative objectives were lost in the process. Our analysis is based
on interviews with 52 public sector officials, lawyers, academics, ac­
tivists, communities, and NGO representatives. The interviews were
recorded, transcribed, and qualitatively analysed to identify key themes
and patterns in the perceptions of our interviewees. Throughout this
article, the interviewees are identified with an anonymous code (e.g.,
I.1).8
4. Subnational cases
4.1. Santiago del Estero
Santiago has one of the lowest compliance rates with the forest law,
despite being the first province to carry out the required territory plan
(AGN 2017). The province has transformed about 23% of its total area
(Aguiar et al., 2018). Most land-clearing has occurred in the 21st cen­
tury, driven by soybean cultivation and farming (Volante and Seghezzo,
2018).
The territory plan (OTBN) was developed between December 2008
and July 2009. Four hundred and thirty-eight people contributed to
assigning ecological values to provincial forests and bushland via sub­
regional workshops, a survey, and/or a public hearing in the provincial
capital. Participants included NGO representatives, producer organisa­
tions, indigenous communities, peasants, and intermediary associations
(AGN 2014). This produced a map of provincial forests with 1046,172
ha classified as red; 5645,784 ha classified as yellow, and 952,493 ha
classified as green (Zeman, 2017).
Despite the diversity of interests among participants, there were no
significant conflicts during the planning process. Interviews revealed
three factors that explain this absence of conflict. Firstly, many actors
perceived the new law as a formality with which they would not comply
if it interfered with their interests. One interviewee explained: the
planning process “didn’t scare anyone… any businessperson would say
‘well, I am just going to deforest’. The (territory plan) doesn’t matter
7 However, data show that since introduction of the forest law, defores­
Fondo Nacional para el Enriquecimiento y la Conservación de los Bosques
Nativos
8
Details of the study, including objectives and publication intentions, were
explained to each interviewee when contact was made. Given the sensitivity of
some themes, anonymity was assured. Basic attributable details are provided in
the Annex. All quotes have been translated by the authors.
87
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
much to anyone… The expectation that it will be applied is low” (I.21).
This reaction is not specific to the territory plan; informality is a cultural
characteristic of the province and one that helps to sustain the status quo.
Compliance with laws is generally low (I.21, I.18). Social practices do
not always reflect written norms. For example, one informant cited that
about 80% of all buildings in the provincial capital were constructed
without approved plans, despite the municipality having rules and
processes for approving new construction (I.21). Translating a new
conservation concept into such a context via new regulations is unlikely
to change unsustainable practices.
The second factor explaining the absence of conflict is that the
agricultural sector, dominated by very large property owners, cleared
massive areas of land before the OTBN began. In 2007, the sector cleared
some 300,000 ha in anticipation of new restrictions (I.1). In this way,
these actors exercised their veto power, protecting their interests outside
the process and eliminating a potential source of conflict during the
participatory mapping. In general, large property owners did not even
participate. They are mostly distant owners without the need or desire to
become involved in local and participatory initiatives to protect their
interests (I.22). Without showing visible signs of resistance to ecological
valuation, these actors were able to minimise its impact on their
interests.
A third factor is that 73.8% of the forest was classified as medium
ecological value, permitting some kind of use. Only 13.7% of the forest
was assigned high ecological value, prohibiting deforestation, and a
large part of that protected forest is in areas of low rainfall, and thus
deemed unproductive land. The forest law thus “protects” forested areas
of little interest to productive sectors (I.21). Other researchers highlight
a lack of capacity at the national and provincial levels to define and
measure ecosystem services (García Collazo et al., 2013; Gautreau et al.,
2014). The yellow category prohibits deforestation but permits sus­
tainable land-use, however, it does not define precisely what is and is not
allowed (I.15). The ambiguity or flexibility of this category avoids open
confrontation between different interests (García Collazo et al., 2013),
but at the cost of weakening the original conservation objectives of
ecological valuation. Ambiguity allows continuation of industrial agri­
cultural by incorporating agroforestry practices. But agroforestry is an
emerging concept without clear boundaries; its meaning is still being
defined (I.22). It is based on the combination of production and con­
servation, but actual land use limits remained unclear for quite some
time after the forest law came into effect. It was unclear whether a
farmer could simply leave 5, 10 or 20 trees and argue that they were
complying with the law because they were not deforesting (I.6). Un­
derstanding and consensus about what constitutes agroforestry is
advancing, but there is a persistent lack of monitoring (I.6, I.15). In this
way, the interests of industrial agriculture have been largely unaffected
by efforts to protect native forest by assigning ecological values.
The potential to translate the ecosystem services concept in ways that
reflect its original transformational objectives is limited by economic,
institutional and political conditions. The forest law has not prevented
illegal deforestation; one interviewee estimated that about 90% of the
carpentry sector in the provincial capital depends on illegal wood
because the process to obtain legal wood is too costly for small-scale
workers (I.9). The large size of the province combined with scarce
human resources and technology make monitoring difficult. Provincial
authorities claim that the law has been successfully applied because
maps show a total reduction in deforestation (I.1). The rate of defores­
tation has fallen but, as Camba Sans et al. (2018) argue, if the law had
had a positive impact on deforestation patterns, we would see reduced
clearing in red and yellow zones, and increased clearing in green zones.
tation has been greater in restricted and prohibited zones than in
permitted zones (I.18; Camba Sans et al. 2018).
The official claim of successful implementation of the law also
overlooks the impact of external factors. Reduced rates of deforestation
are partly a result of the fall in soybean prices following the 2008 global
H. Stevenson et al.
financial crisis, and partly a result of an inevitable drop following the
pre-law peak in deforestation (Camba Sans et al. 2018). One interviewee
explained that much of the reduction in deforestation had occurred
because so much of the area suitable for agriculture had already been
cleared (I.15).
Also relevant is the national institutional environment that un­
dermines local capacity to incentivise conservation. Payments from the
national fund are delayed, and the overall finance available is insuffi­
cient to compensate sustainable management. Santiago is one of the
largest beneficiaries of the fund because it has been particularly active in
submitting sustainable management plans (I.4). But the amounts are
insufficient to compete with the productive uses driven by national and
international demand (I.1). As one local authority explained, “we hope
that one day the fund will give us a little more because it is owed to us by
law, and because we are the ones who fill the mouths of Argentineans.
We produce grain for the world, but we also produce oxygen for the
world… Unfortunately, they don’t pay us (for that)” (I.1).
An obstacle to the fair distribution of these funds is the widespread
lack of property deeds among peasants. Those who use the land often do
not hold the title, and only titleholders can request compensation for
sustainable management. Argentina’s civil code recognizes possessory
rights, which allow a person to be recognized as the landholder if they
have lived, worked on and improved an area of land for at least twenty
years (Barbetta, 2010). In Santiago, processes have been put in place to
recognise landholders, so that (among other advantages) they can obtain
compensation through the forest law. But the right is still insufficiently
diffused at the local level, and the process to obtain a title can be long
and costly (I.10, I.18).
Translation of the ecosystem services concept into practice and
policy via the forest law has had a limited impact on the interests of
incumbent political and economic actors because this law has not been
adequately integrated into other provincial and national laws. Land-use
pressures remain unchanged and there is no national forests framework
to harmonise or prioritise competing objectives. In the years following
the law’s introduction, there were efforts to eliminate contradictory
subsidies for different ministries (for example, parallel subsidies for
conservation and farming) (I.22). The National Plan for Forest Man­
agement with Integrated Livestock Farming resolves some of these
contradictions by offering agroforestry guidelines (I.22). However, in
general “there is a disassociation between what the forest law says and
what the provincial development proposals say” (I.11). The inferiority of
environmental ministries in the institutional hierarchy results in the
subordination of conservationist objectives to production objectives.
What is still lacking, as one interviewee highlighted, is a national forest
policy that is fully integrated with other policies and establishes national
objectives regarding forest resources (I.4).
The forest law was designed to recognise and attribute ecological
values to native forests, acknowledging that forests provide a range of
ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing. In practice, there
have been favourable elements (such as greater recognition of land­
holders, participation opportunities, and greater awareness of the socio-
environmental impact of clearing). However, the law has not fulfilled
the transformative objectives that proponents of the ecosystem services
concept anticipated.
4.2. Misiones
The idea of assigning ecological value to native forest was initially
opposed by incumbent political and economic actors in Misiones. They
claimed the proposed forest law was unconstitutional for imposing
limits on how provinces could use their territory. Provincial represen­
tatives complained that the law had been made “at the port” (referring to
the capital, Buenos Aires), and that it went against forestry and agri­
cultural activities, “relegating the poor northern provinces to being the
green lung of Argentina” (Schmidt, 2015: 128). The Native Forests
Territorial Planning (OTBN) was incorporated into provincial law in
88
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
2010, but we can see how the translation process protected dominant
economic interests. Formally, the process was participatory: different
sectors were invited, including academics (forestry experts), civil society
(for example, the College of Surveyors), indigenous communities, and
the private sector. Two interviewees explained that the process was
“formally” participatory but there was a tacit agreement to only invite
actors who were not too opposed to the core ideas underlying the OTBN
(I.27, I.39). Interviewees agreed that some sectors were dissatisfied with
the planning outcome, and that some conservationist positions were
unsuccessful in pushing for greater forest area to be assigned high
ecological value. Ecological valuation was translated in ways that left
intact the status quo, characterised by a powerful forestry sector, and a
dominant vision shared by productive and public sectors alike that
development in Misiones should not suffer for the sake of conservation.
The OTBN process produced a new territory plan almost identical to the
existing plan, which had not been prepared on the basis of ecological
valuation but originated in the 1970 s as part of a provincial law for
forest planning.
The forestry sector disputed the meaning of ecological value. The
existing provincial forest law included both native forest and planta­
tions, and the forestry sector insisted that the new OTBN should not
interfere with the production of exotic trees. This prioritisation of
plantations and productivity is not limited to the province of Misiones
but is part of an observable pattern at the national level. Misiones’
original Provincial Forest Law of 1977 coincided with the first large
investment in the forestry sector during the civil-military dictatorship
designed to develop the paper industry (Gautreau, 2014). National rules
for promoting plantations advanced faster than rules for protecting
native forest. A law promoting investment in cultivated forests was
introduced in 1999, but the native forest law wasn’t introduced until
2007.
Perceived tensions between productivity and conservation were
evident in our interviews. Interviewees spoke of the perception that
native forest is not valued as something that yields economic benefits.
One claimed that “… people have a vision of the native forest as
something unproductive. What it can give you is wood (so) you have to
take it out, remove it to start doing something productive as quickly as
possible” (I.29). Another said: “I’ve thought about the image that my
grandfather would have found when he arrived in Misiones. The forest,
the stream… What would my grandfather do? Precisely what he did do:
he uprooted trees to make his house, to cultivate the area to feed himself
and his livestock. Now, I could say ‘We don’t have to slash the native
forest’, but it’s not like we’re monkeys that can go hanging from trees”
(I.30). These testimonies reveal a perception of the native forest as
resource that is abundant and unproductive. Conservation concepts are
not easily translated into such a context. Failure to provide sufficient
compensation for sustainable management makes conservation objec­
tives even harder to reach. As observed in Santiago, Misiones experi­
ences delayed payments from the national compensation fund and the
amounts available are insufficient to shift incentive structures (I.28,
I.30). One interviewee explained: “Someone in (the area of) Arroyo
Ramón who had forest (on their property) and exploited it to make
camping grounds would say ‘I’m going to slash the forest, replant it,
improve it’. They would get the same compensation as someone who has
to restore (the forest). The topic of compensation or payment is a diffi­
cult one, it’s sensitive. I think it is a good way to incentivise (forest) care.
But I also think it makes people feel undercompensated” (I.25). An
additional problem is the initial cost of preparing a management plan, a
cost not covered by the fund. In the case of Misiones, we also observe
how contradictions in different national programs undermine the
objective of the forest law and its compensation scheme. National pro­
grams delivered to the local level offer opposing incentives to small-
scale producers, for example, one scheme promotes plans for refores­
tation while another promotes plans for exotic aquaculture on the banks
of waterways.
Additional efforts have been made to translate the concept of
H. Stevenson et al.
ecosystem services in Misiones via the UNDP-funded project “Incentives
for Conserving Ecosystem Services of Global Importance”. This consti­
tuted a pilot scheme for payments for ecosystem services (Peixoto
Batista et al., 2019). The case of Misiones, which was relatively suc­
cessful, developed a private scheme of payments for water-related ser­
vices. It also established a compensation mechanism between producers
in the Arroyo Ramón basin and the Electric Cooperative in the city of
Oberá. However, it was a small-scale initiative that posed no threat to
the dominant development model in the province of Misiones. It reflects
what Redford et al. (2013) call a “conservation fad” whereby funds are
enthusiastically directed to approaches that promise win-win solutions,
which are then abandoned for a new promising solution (Asiyanbi and
Massarella, 2020).
4.3. San Juan
Our previous two cases provide insights into translation of the
ecosystem services concept into forest-based contexts. The case of San
Juan broadens our focus to consider the context of glaciers. In 2008, the
Argentine government approved the Law on Minimum Standards for the
Protection of Glaciers and the Periglacial Environment, which considers
glaciers as strategic reserves of water resources. To protect water ser­
vices, the law presented two measures: 1. preparation of a national
glacier inventory (ING: Inventario Nacional de Glaciares), and 2. prohi­
bition of mining and petroleum activities, and any other potentially
polluting industry in glacial and periglacial areas (Art. 6).
The law clashed with mining interests as there are multiple mining
projects in glacial zones, primarily in the province of San Juan (I.41).9
Shortly after its adoption, the glacier law was vetoed by the Argentine
president (decree 1837/08). Congressman Miguel Bonasso (one of the
sponsors of the glaciers law) publicly condemned the Canadian-owned
Barrick Gold Corporation for pressuring the government to veto the
law (La Política Online, 2008). This became known as the “Barrick veto”
as it protected the interests of the mining industry (I.42, I.45).
Socio-environmental NGOs and intellectuals ran a campaign to raise
awareness of the importance of glacier protection (Antonelli et al.
2010). Subsequently, in October 2010, the Argentine Senate enacted the
System for Minimum Standards for the Protection of Glaciers and the
Periglacial Environment, which is similar to the 2008 vetoed law.
However, it was not approved without conflict (Martín and Healey,
2020). Parliamentary debates centred on the extent of area to be pro­
tected under the category of glacial or periglacial environment (Ryan,
2014). In some provinces with mining activity, the national glacier
protection legislation generated tension because the constitution gives
provinces control over their natural resources (Christel and Torunzyk,
2017). In October 2010, pro-mining institutions in San Juan filed an
amparo against the glacier law claiming that it violated this constitu­
tional right. In November 2010, the Federal Court of San Juan ordered
precautionary measures and suspended local application of the national
legislation (CIJ 2020). This precautionary measure was revoked by the
National Supreme Court of Justice in 2012 enabling the law to take ef­
fect. Furthermore, in 2011, "Barrick Exploraciones Argentinas" and the
state of San Juan took legal action against the national state to nullify
the “unconstitutional” glacier law. Their claim was eventually rejected
by the National Supreme Court of Justice, but not until 2019 (CIJ 2019).
The law is now in force, which may suggest effective translation of
the ecosystem services concept (specifically glacier services). However,
the law is applied in ways that protect dominant economic interests.
Diverse communities in the mountain ranges condemn the lack of
compliance (I.47, I.49). Delayed preparation of the National Glacier
9
Environmental NGOs (FARN and Greenpeace Argentina) criticised the ex­
istence of more than 44 mining projects in glacial zones, which came to light in
a leaked document of the National Department for the Environmental Man­
agement of Water and Aquatic Resources (Greenpeace Argentina, 2016).
89
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
Inventory hindered implementation of the law. The Argentine govern­
ment’s institute for snow and glacier research, IANIGLA, which was
responsible for the inventory, did not publish the results until 2018,
eight years after the law was approved. In addition to this delay, envi­
ronment and citizen organizations complain that the inventory is
incomplete because it excludes glaciers smaller than one hectare, despite
the fact that the glacier law stipulates no minimum size (I.42; Seguí,
2016; Greenpeace 2019). Citizens of San Juan condemned the
ex-director of IANIGLA for abuse of power in applying this restriction,
and in 2017 the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court prosecuted
multiple officials of IANIGLA and the national Secretariat of Environ­
ment and Sustainability for contravening the glacier law and leaving
glaciers unprotected in arid mining areas (CIJ 2017). At the national
level, the Community Assemblies Union, which brings together various
communities in defence of the environment, also advocated for
compliance, demanding that the inventory be broadened, applied and
respected (UAC 2018). One of the most emblematic community-led
initiatives in defence of the glacier law has been in the area of Jáchal
in San Juan (Asamblea Jáchal No Se Toca) (Godfrid and Damonte, 2020).
Since this assembly was established in 2015, it has carried out protests
and judicial appeals demanding compliance with the glacier law (I.48,
I.49, I.50). Their defence of glaciers resonates with the idea of ecosystem
services:: “The glacier is a guarantee of water… the ice that melts from
the glacier gives life to the whole territory… The rivers, streams, and
underground basins originate in the mountain range; it is the perfect
factory, how could we fail to care for it? Anything that happens to (the
glacier) irretrievably impacts the waters below…” (I.50). This testimony
reveals that for many mountain-range communities, the defence of
glaciers means the defence of life. In the framework of ecosystem ser­
vices, the glaciers are valued for the services they provide, which is the
supply of water for present and future generations.
Reflecting on the glacier law, members of the Jáchal Assembly and
other civil society organisations sense that the San Juan government
fails to fully implement the glacier law to protect mining sector interests
(I.42; 45; 49). Despite the fact that social conflicts persist around mining
and glaciers, environmental regulation institutions in San Juan have
remained closed to social demands and continue promoting provincial
development based on mining exploitation (Haslam and Godfrid, 2020).
5. Discussion
Existing research on uptake of the ecosystem services concept tends
to highlight technical constraints such as incomplete data, complexity,
resource limitations, methodological confusion, institutional inertia,
and the short “shelf life” of ecosystem services indicators (Keenan et al.,
2019; van Oudenhoven et al., 2018; Wright et al., 2017). While these
technical factors are indeed important, we must also be attuned to the
impact of political and institutional factors. In the Latin American
context, Weyland et al. (2019) find that implementation is rendered
difficult by distinct, and often incompatible, interests, interpretations,
and capacities of participating sectors (namely, researchers,
decision-makers, and citizens). For Stevenson et al. (2021), uptake of the
concept has been constrained by its lack of “practical fit”. Our analysis
deepens understanding of how such political and institutional factors
play out in practice, and the implications this has for the concept’s
impact.
Proponents of the ecosystem services concept had transformative
aspirations. They hoped it could provide a new interpretive framework
for understanding nature and generate new tools to avoid undervaluing
nature in decision-making. The experiences of these provinces show the
difficulty of translating this concept in ways that do not lose sight of the
original objectives. Does the problem lie in the concept itself, or in its
application in Argentina? Studies of the political and practical feasibility
of ecosystem services-based governance are beginning to appear and
reveal problems intrinsic to the concept, suggesting that the Argentine
case is not unique in failing to live up to the expectations of the concept’s
H. Stevenson et al.
founders and advocates (Weyland et al., 2019). Just as individual PES
projects are often moulded around local worldviews and practices
(Kolinjivadi et al., 2017), the broader translation of the concept into
practice and policy at international, national, and subnational scales is
affected by political, economic and institutional conditions. To the
extent that the concept is translated, it is modified to fit existing in­
stitutions, not vice versa. This supports broader studies of diffusion that
show how incongruent ideas are adapted in the process of being adopted
(Ansari et al., 2010: 67). Just as Latour (1984) observed four decades
ago, ideas are not faithfully transmitted from one actor to another. In the
case of Argentina, we see the mechanism of “compromise” at play
(Ansari et al., 2010): powerful interests are accommodated in ways that
strip the concept of its transformative aspirations. What is left is a
buzzword (Cornwall, 2007).
We show how the concept has been translated in ways that do not
threaten hegemonic actors’ interests. In Santiago, the influence of heg­
emonic interests is evident in the results of the territorial planning
(OTBN), which prohibits deforestation in a limited area, and in the lack
of application of the plan. The forest law thus does not interfere with
agricultural and farming practices that generate provincial tax revenue.
In Misiones, economic interests produced a tacit agreement to limit
participation to fairly likeminded actors. Powerful economic interests
are also reflected in the results of the OTBN, which produced a plan
almost identical to the existing forest and plantation plan. Failure to
resolve contradictions in provincial and national legislation also results
in parallel programs that incentivise industrial forestry activity and
environmental protection. Failure to harmonise these policies benefits
hegemonic actors to the detriment of conservation. In San Juan,
extractive interests hinder translation of the ecosystem services concept
into practice. Although local communities themselves do not explicitly
use the concept, it reflects their perception that glaciers constitute
fundamental water reserves for present and future generations. How­
ever, mining interests have resisted the concept and its potential
application through the glacier law by using legal and political tools to
guarantee the continuity of their projects.
In addition to political economic factors, the weakness of state in­
stitutions undermines the transformative potential of the ecosystem
services concept. Institutional memory in the bodies responsible for
oversight is minimal, budgets are limited, and technical capacity in
bureaucratic units is weak. The impact is clear in the case of Santiago,
one of the largest and poorest provinces where it is difficult to carry out
the level of monitoring necessary to ensure the effective implementation
of programs using an ecosystem services approach. In Santiago and
Misiones, the impact of small budgets and scarce resources is evident in
the ineffectual management of the compensatory fund.
International diffusion of the ecosystem services concept occurs in a
context in which Argentina is a provider of commodities for interna­
tional markets, a role it cannot easily abandon given exceptionally high
levels of debt and poverty. Without a multilateral agreement to account
for the costs of ecosystem services, Argentina cannot add the ecological
value to these commodities in such a way that would promote conser­
vation over exploitation of nature. This would undermine the country’s
competitiveness, encourage market displacement and reduce export
revenues. Although the fund is presented as a kind of “payment for
ecosystem services” scheme, the amount available is disconnected from
any economic valuation of these services and is insufficient to incenti­
vise their protection. When assessing the performance of Argentina in
terms of applying the ecosystem services concept, we have to understand
this political-economic context. The concept of ecosystem services is
diffused within a global capitalist system with structural determinants.
Our analysis does not point to a “failed case” but reflects the limitations
of this concept and its weak transformative potential.
The cases of Santiago and Misiones demonstrate how the application
of this concept adapts to the different interests and values of different
actors. The status quo accommodates the concept while remaining
largely unchanged. This is facilitated by an ambiguous interpretation of
90
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
ecological value. The case of San Juan demonstrates how hegemonic
economic actors reject application of the concept when it cannot
accommodate their extractivist interests.
6. Conclusion
These cases show how translation of the ecosystem services concept
into practice and policy has been affected by political-economic condi­
tions, which stripped the concept of its original conservation objectives.
These findings support existing neo-Gramscian studies of the effect of
hegemonic interests on efforts to promote sustainable transformations.
The aspiration to fundamentally reorder societies’ interactions with the
biophysical world cannot be approached as a technical challenge but
rather needs to be understood as a political challenge. Such aspirations
will inevitably meet resistance from those actors with an interest in
maintaining the unsustainable status quo.
Our study confirms the limitations of the ecosystem services concept,
which has not lived up to the transformative potential its creators
anticipated. However, the essence of this story is not unique to the
ecosystem services context. Instead, it reflects more general environ­
mental political dynamics whereby sustainability ideas clash with the
interests of incumbent actors and as a result are reduced to buzzwords.
Ecosystem services is just one more among a diverse constellation of
environmental concepts which have been established without sufficient
attention to structural constraints in the international system and sys­
temic constraints at the domestic level. Academic and professional
communities are constantly developing new environmental concepts
with the hope of enabling new ways of understanding and responding to
environmental challenges. But it is not just a matter of “getting the
science right” (Naeem et al., 2015). Concepts, after all, become “political
projects” (Hausknost et al., 2017). When conceptual innovation takes
place without sufficient attention to context and constraints, new con­
cepts are likely to only work in small and experimental ways that do not
displace the dominant development model. In the case of ecosystem
services, most intellectual energy has been spent on developing and
refining methodologies for measuring and valuing services. Our study
highlights the importance of coupling conceptual innovation with
political-economic analysis to generate realistic expectations about their
transformative potential.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Europe and Global Challenges
initiative of Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Wellcome Trust and
VolkswagenStiftung [grant number GC15-1237:1].
Appendix A. Supporting information
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the
online version at doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2022.01.002.
References
Acharya, Amitav. 2004. How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and
Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism. International Organization 58 (2):
239–275. DOI: 10.1017/S0020818304582024.
AGN (Auditoría General de la Nación) (2014). Auditoría de Gestión Ambiental: Ley de
Protección de Bosques Nativos, Anexo VIII. https://www.agn.gov.ar/files/informes/
f_038_14_05_04.pdf.
Aguiar, S.M., Mastrangelo, E., Verón, S.R., 2018. Cuál es la situación de la Ley de Bosques
en la Región Chaqueña a diez años de su sanción? Ecol. Austral 28, 400–417.
H. Stevenson et al.
Allan, Jen Iris, Graeme Auld, Timothy Cadman, and Hayley Stevenson. forthcoming,
Comparative Fortunes of Ecosystem Services as an International Governance
Concept, Global Policy. DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.13036.
Ansari, S.M., Peer, C.Fiss, Zajac, Edward J., 2010. Made to fit: how practices vary as they
diffuse. Acad. Manag. Rev. 35 (1), 67–92.
Antonelli, Mirta, Pablo Bergel, Norma Giarracca, Marcelo Giraud, Horacio Machado
Aráoz, Maristella Svampa, Miguel Teubal, & Enrique Viale. 2010. Diez razones para
apoyar la ley de protección de los glaciares. http://www.maristellasvampa.net/arch
ivos/ensayo46.pdf.
Asiyanbi, Adeniyi, Massarella, Kate, 2020. Transformation is what you expect, models
are what you get: REDD+ and models in conservation and development. J. Political
Ecol. 27 (1), 476–495.
Barbetta, P., 2010. En los bordes de lo jurídico: campesinos y justicia en Santiago del
Estero. Cuad. De. Antroplogía Soc. 32, 121–146.
Batista, Juliana, Peixoto, Godfrid, Julieta, Stevenson, Hayley, 2019. La difusión del
concepto de servicios ecosistémicos en la Argentina. Alcances y resistencias. Rev.
SAAP (Soc. Argent. De. Análisis Político) Vol. 13 (2), 313–340 (No).
Callon, M. 1984. Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the
scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. The Sociological Review 32(1):
196–233..
Camba Sans, G.H., Paruelo, J.M., 2018. Assessing the effectiveness of a land zoning
policy in the Dry Chaco. Land Use Policy 70, 313–321.
Camba Sans, G.H., Aguiar, S., Vallejos, M., Paruelo, J.M., 2018. Assessing the
effectiveness of a land zoning policy in the Dry Chaco. The case of Santiago del
Estero. ArgentinaLand Use Policy 70, 313–321.
Campbell, J.L., 2004. Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton University Press.
Centro de Información Judicial (CIJ) (2019). La Corte Suprema convalidó la
constitucionalidad de la ley de preservación de los glaciares rechazando el pedido de
Barrick Gold, Minera Argentina Gold y provincia de San Juan. https://bit.ly/3ukfktI.
Christel, L., Torunzyk, D., 2017. Sovereignties in conflict: socio-environmental
mobilization and the glacier law in Argentina. Eur. Rev. Lat. Am. Caribb. Stud.
47–68.
Cornwall, Andrea. 2007. Buzzwords and fuzzwords: deconstructing.
Costanza, R., et al., 1997. ‘The Value of The World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural
Capital’. Nature 387, 253–260.
Costanza, R., Groot, R., Braat, L., Kubiszewski, I., Fioramonti, L., Sutton, P., 2017.
Twenty years of ecosystem services: how far have we come and how far do we still
need to go? Ecosystem Services 28, 1–16.
Cox, R., 1983. Gramsci, hegemony and international relations: an essay in method.
Millenn.: J. Int. Stud. 12 (2), 162–175.
Craig, M., Stevenson, H., Meadowcroft, J., 2019. Debating nature’s value: Epistemic
strategy and struggle in the story of ‘ecosystem services’. Journal of Environmental
Policy and Planning 21 (6), 811–825.
Daily, G., 1997. Nature’s services. Island Press, Washington.
Droste, Nils, D’Amato, Dalia, Goddard, Jessica J., 2018. Where communities intermingle,
diversity grows – The evolution of topics in ecosystem service research. PLOS One.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204749.
FARN (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales) (2019) La Ley de Bosques, cada vez
más desfinanciada. https://farn.org.ar/la-ley-de-bosques-cada-vez-mas-desfinanci
ada/.
Feola, G., 2015. Societal transformation in response to global environmental change: a
review of emerging concepts. Ambio 44, 376–390.
Finnemore, M., Sikkink, K., 1998. International norm dynamics and political change. Int.
Organ. 52 (4), 887–917.
Fletcher, Robert, Büscher, Bram, 2017. The PES conceit: revisiting the relationship
between payments for environmental services and neoliberal conservation. Ecol.
Econ. 132, 224–231.
García Collazo, M.A., Panizza, A., Paruelo, J.M., 2013. Ordenamiento Territorial de
Bosques Nativos: Resultados de la Zonificación realizada por provincias del Norte
argentino. Ecología Austral 23 (2), 97–107.
Gautreau, P., Langbehn, L., Ruoso, L., 2014. Movilización de información en el
Ordenamiento Territorial de Bosques Nativos de Argentina. Terc. Jorn. Nac. De.
Invest. Y. Docencia En. Geogr. Argent. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs
-00992299.
Godfrid, J., Damonte, G., 2020. La Provincia de San Juan entre la promoción minera y la
defensa del agua: “narrativas territoriales” en disputa. Quid 16 13, 85–112.
Gómez-Baggethun, E., Barton, D.N., Berry, P., Dunford, R., Harrison, P.A., 2016.
Concepts and methods in ecosystem services valuation. In: Roy, Haines-Young,
Robert, Fish, Kerry Turner, R. (Eds.), Marion Potschin. Routledge Handbook of
Ecosystem Services, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 99–111.
Greenpeace Argentina (2016). Alerta ambiental: hay más de 40 proyectos mineros sobre
glaciares. https://www.greenpeace.org/archive-argentina/es/noticias/Alerta
-ambiental-hay-mas-de-40-proyectos-mineros-sobre-glaciares/.
Haslam, P., Godfrid, J., 2020. Activists and regulatory politics: Institutional
opportunities, information, and the activation of environmental regulation. Extr.
Ind. Soc. 7, 1077–1085.
Hausknost, D., Grima, Nelson, Singh, Simron Jit, 2017. The political dimensions of
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): Cascade or stairway?. In: Ecological
Economics, 131, pp. 109–118.
Hecken, Gert, Van, Kolinjivadi, Vijay, Windey, Catherine, McElwee, Pamela, Shapiro-
Garza, Elizabeth, Huybrechs, Frédéric, Bastiaensen, Johan, 2018. Silencing agency
in payments for ecosystem services (PES) by essentializing a neoliberal ‘monster’
into being: a response to fletcher & büscher’s ‘PES conceit’. Ecol. Econ. 144,
314–318.
91
Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92
Jax, K., Furman, E., Watt, I.D., 2018. Handling a messy world: Lessons learned when
trying to make the ecosystem services concept operational. Ecosyst. Serv. 29,
415–427.
Keenan, Rodney J., Pozza, Greg, Fitzsimon, James, A., 2019. Ecosystem services in
environmental policy: Barriers and opportunities for increased adoption. Ecosyst.
Serv. 38, 100943.
Kleinman, D.L., Moore, K., 2014. Introduction. In: Kleinman, D.L., Moore, K. (Eds.),
Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society. Routledge, pp. 1–18.
Kolinjivadi, Vijay, Gert, Van Hecken, Carlo, Rodríguez de Francisco Jean,
Jérôme, Pelenc, Nicolás, Kosoy, 2017. As a lock to a key? Why science is more than
just an instrument to pay for nature’s services. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 26–27
(2), 1–6.
La Política Online (2008). Bonasso: "Barrick Gold presionó para que Cristina vete la ley
de Glaciares" https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/nota/nota-53971/.
Langbehn, L., Schmidt, M., 2017. Bosques nativos y extractivismo en Argentina. Voces
En. el Fénix 60, 88–95.
Latour, B., 1984. The Powers of Association. Sociol. Rev. 32 (1), 256–280.
Levy, D.L., Egan, D., 2003. A neo-Gramscian approach to corporate political strategy:
conflict and accommodation in the climate change negotiations. J. Manag. Stud. 40
(4), 803–29.
Levy, D.L., Newell, P.J., 2005. The Business of Global Environmental Governance. MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA.
Martín, Facundo, Healey, Mark, 2020. La Ley de Glaciares en la encrucijada (Cartografía
del conflicto ambiental III. CICCUS). In: Gabriela, Merlinsky (Ed.), Cuestión minera y
juridificación del conflicto ambiental en Argentina. Buenos Aires, pp. 157–186.
McAfee, K., 2012. The contradictory logic of global ecosystem service markets. Dev.
Change 43, 105–131.
Meadowcroft, J., Fiorino, D., 2017. Conceptual Innovation in Environmental Policy.
Cambridge MA. MIT Press.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A
Framework for Assessment. Island Press, Washington DC.
Ministerio de Hacienda. (2019). Informes de cadenas de valor. Minerales metalíferos:
oro. Presidencia de la Nación Argentina. www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/file
s/sspmicro_cadenas_de_valor_mineria_metalifera_oro.pdf.
Naeem, S., Ingram, J.C., Varga, A., Agardy, T., Barten, P., Bennett, G., Bloomgarden, E.,
Bremer, L.L., Burkill, P., Cattau, M., Ching, C., Colby†, M., Cook, D.C., Costanza, R.,
DeClerck, F., Freund, C., Gartner, T., Goldman-Benner, R., Gunderson, J., Jarrett, D.,
Kinzig, A.P., Kiss, A., Koontz, A., Kumar, P., Lasky, J.R., Masozera, M., Meyers, D.,
Milano, F., Naughton-Treves, L., Nichols, E., Olander, L., Olmsted, P., Perge, E.,
Perrings, C., Polasky, S., Potent, J., Prager, C., Quétier, F., Redford, K., Saterson†, K.,
Thoumi, G., Vargas, M.T., Vickerman, S., Weisser, W., Wilkie, D., Wunder, S., 2015.
Get the science right when paying for nature’s services. In: Science, 347,
pp. 1206–1207.
Nahuelhual, L.G., Saavedra, F., Henríquez, F., Benra, X., Vergara, C., Perugache, F.,
Hasen, 2018. Opportunities and limits to ecosystem services governance in
developing countries and indigenous territories: the case of water supply in Southern
Chile. Environ. Sci. Policy 86, 11–18.
Newell, P., 2018. Trasformismo or transformation? The global political economy of
energy transitions. Rev. Int. Political Econ. 19 (1), 25–48.
van Oudenhoven, A.P.E., Schröter, M., Drakou, E.G., Albert, C., 2018. Key criteria for
developing ecosystem service indicators to inform decision making. Ecol. Indic. 95
(1), 417–426.
Paterson, M., 2000. Understanding. Global Environmental Politics: Domination,
Accumulation, Resistance. Houndmills. Palgrave Macmillan,.
Patterson, James, Schulz, Karsten, Vervoort, Joost, Hel, Sandra van der,
Widerberg, Oscar, Adler, Carolina, 2017. Margot Hurlbert, Karen Anderton,
Mahendra Sethi, Aliyu Barau. Explor. Gov. Polit. Transform. Towards Sustain.,
Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 24, 1–16.
Potschin-Young, M.R., Haines-Young, C., Görg, U., Heink, K., Jax, Schleyer, C., 2018.
Understanding the role of conceptual frameworks: Reading the ecosystem service
cascade. Ecosyst. Serv. 29 (2018), 428–440.
Presidencia de la Nación. 2016. Estrategia de Biodiversidad 2016–2020. https://www.ar
gentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/estrategia-biodiversidad_2016–2020.pdf.
Redford, K.H., Padoch, Christine, Sunderland, Terry, 2013. Fads, Funding, and
Forgetting in Three Decades of Conservation. Conserv. Biol. 27 (3), 437–438.
Restoy, Enrique, Elbe, Stefan, 2021. Drilling down in norm diffusion: norm
domestication, “glocal” power, and community-based organizations in global health.
Glob. Stud. Q. doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksab025.
Risse, T., Ropp, S.C., Sikkink, K., 1999. The Power of Human Rights: International Norms
and Domestic Change. Cambridge University Press.
Robinne, F.-N., Gallagher, L., Bréthaut, C., Schlaepfer, M.A., 2019. A novel tool for
measuring the penetration of the ecosystem service concept into public policy.
Ecosyst. Serv. 36.
Russel, D., Jordan, A., Turnpenny, J., 2016. The use of ecosystem services knowledge in
policy-making. In Marion Potschin, Roy. In: Haines-Young, Robert, Fish, Kerry
Turner, R. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services. Routledge, Abingdon,
pp. 586–596.
Ryan, D., 2014. Política y ambiente en la Argentina: ¿Un caso de baja politización?
Estado Y. políticas públicas 3, 22–32.
Saarikoski, Heli, Primmer, Eeva, Saarela, Sanna-Riikka, Antunes, Paula, Aszalós, R.éka,
Baró, Francesc, Berry, Pam, Blanko, Gemma Garcia, Erik, Goméz-Baggethun,
Carvalho, Laurence, Dick, Jan, Dunford, Robert, Hanzu, Mihail, Paula, A., Zita
Izakovicova, Harrison, Kertész, Miklós, Kopperoinen, Leena, Köhler, Berit,
Langemeyer, Johannes, Lapola, David, Liquete, Camino, Luque, Sandra,
Mederly, Peter, Niemelä, Jari, Palomo, Ignacio, Martinez Pastur, Guillermo,
Peri, Pablo Luis, Preda, Elena, Priess, J.örg A., Santos, Rui, Schleyer, Christian,
H. Stevenson et al. Environmental Science and Policy 131 (2022) 84–92

Turkelboom, Francis, Vadineanu, Angheluta, Verheyden, Wim, Vikström, Suvi, Wright, William C.C., Eppink, Florian, V., Greenhalgh, Suzie, 2017. Are ecosystem
Young, Juliette, 2018. Institutional challenges in putting ecosystem service service studies presenting the right information for decision making? Ecosyst. Serv.
knowledge in practice. Ecosyst. Serv. 29, 579–598 (C). 25, 128–139.
Scarpati, O., Kruse, E., Hebe, M., Vich, A., Capriolo, A., Caffera, R., 2014. Updating the Zeman, C., 2017. El Ordenamiento Ambiental de las Áreas Forestales en Santiago del
Hydrological Knowledge: A Case Study. In: In Handbook of Engineering Hydrology, Estero. IV Congr. Nac. De. Derecho Agrar. Prov. (Salta). http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar
Vol. 3. Routledge,, pp. 445–459. /handle/10915/60455.
Schmidt, M.A., 2015. Política Ambiental. Av. De. la Front. Agropecu. Y. Deforestación
En. Argent.: el caso De. la ley “De. Bosques”. Rev. GeoPantanal 18, 121–139.
Hayley Stevenson is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Universidad
Seguí, Diego, 2016. Derrame de cianuro en Veladero. Informe Ambiental Anual. FARN.
Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). She is the author of Global Environmental Politics: Problems,
Buenos Aires,, 206-206.
Policy and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Democratizing Global Climate
Selva, Verde, Paulia Natasha, Gracie, Kimb, Milena Kiatkoski, Clifton, Julian, 2020.
Governance (with John S. Dryzek, Cambridge University Press, 2014), and Institutionalizing
Opportunity for change or reinforcing inequality?equity implications of government
Unsustainability: The Paradox of Global Climate Governance (University of California Press,
payments for conservation in Brazil. Environmental Science and Policy 105,
2013). Her research crosses the areas of global governance, environmental politics, green
102–112.
political economy, and democratic theory.
Stevenson, Hayley, Auld, Graeme, Allan, Jen Iris, Elliott, Lorraine, Meadowcroft, James,
2021. The Practical Fit of Concepts: Ecosystem Services and the Value of Nature.
Glob. Environ. Polit. 21 (2), 3–22. Juliana Peixoto Batista holds a Ph.D. degree in International Law from University of
Stevenson, Hayley. 2013. Institutionalizing Unsustainability. Berkeley, CA: University of Buenos Aires. She is currently Researcher at the International Relations Department at the
California Press. Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), Argentina chapter, and at the
Stirling, Andy, 2015. Emancipating Transformation: From controlling “the transition” to Argentinean National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). Her
culturing plural radical progress. In: Scoone, Ian, Leach, Melissa, Newell, Peter research lines are developed in the intersection between International Relations and In­
(Eds.), The Politics of Green Transformations. Routledge, London, pp. 54–67. ternational Law, focusing on topics such as multilateral trading system, regional integra­
TEEB, 2010. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Mainstreaming the tion, asymmetries in trade agreements, environment, among others.
Economics of Nature: A synthesis of the approach. conclusions and
recommendations of TEEB. UNEP, Nairobi.
Julieta Godfrid obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences. Currently she is a postdoctoral
Volante, J.N., Seghezzo, L., 2018. Can’t see the forest for THE TREes? Ecol. Econ. 146,
researcher (FONDECYT) at Universidad de Playa Ancha (Chile). Her research interest
408–413.
focuses on the effects of social conflicts on corporate social responsibility in the mining
Weyland, F., Mastrangelo, M.E., Auer, A.D., Barral, M.P., Nahuelhual, L., Larrazábal, A.,
sector particularly in Chile and Argentina. She has published in Extractive Industries and
Parera, A.F., Berrouet Cadavid, L.M., López-Gómez, C.P., Villegas Palacio, C., 2019.
Society; Business & Society; and Revista Íconos.
Ecosystem services approach in Latin America: From theoretical promises to real
applications. Ecosyst. Serv. 35, 280–293.

92