6 would sell their products in bulk to the larger corporations or intermediaries who would take most of the profits. The transformation to ferias francas allowed the farmers to diversify their crops and to turn more of a profit. The market concept was created through NGO intervention and rural political organization to allow the smaller farmers to offer a variety of products and reconnect the consumers with the producers rather than the bulk produce the larger corporations sell. The organization of smaller farmers allows them to promote their food as being produced without chemicals and to operate with lower costs than if they were to work independently. Increasing Deforestation Rates and Implications The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, an agreement developed in 1992 that aims to create national strategies to protect biological diversity, claims that Argentina is one of the most biodiverse nations, with an economy that relies heavily on financial support from the agricultural sector, primarily soybeans (Convention on Biological Diversity). Changes in land use and closer proximity of people to forests can have a significant impact on climate change and biodiversity. The accelerating deforestation will cause the impacts of climate change to arrive much sooner than expected. Animals are more wary of approaching roads as they can indicate the presence of humans. Due to the pressure of deforestation, certain animals are becoming scarcer. Humans and domesticated animals, like dogs and cats, moving into the forest area are enough to drive some bird species, tapirs, pumas, jaguars, peccaries, and anteaters to disappear from the region. In 1997, 18% of mammals in Argentina were labeled as being under threat (critically endangered, endangered, threatened, or vulnerable), rising to 24% in 2000 before falling to 21% in 2012. From 2000 to 2012, reptiles and amphibians in the threatened category rose from 8% to 78% (Convention on Biological Diversity). Additionally, the loss of native forests due to agricultural expansion is the primary threat to biodiversity. As deforestation continues, these animals cannot adjust to the changing conditions in the forest borders. A key example of deforestation is the Gran Chaco region, which is shared by Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, and covers approximately 65 million hectares. NASA estimates that from 1985 to 2013, 14.2 million hectares (about 20%) of the Gran Chaco region were deforested and converted to farmland or grazing land (Patel, 2020). From 2010 to 2018, over 2.9 million hectares of the Gran Chaco region were converted into farms or ranches, with the vast majority of the cleared land in Argentina (Camba Sans et al., 2018). Gran Chaco, the second largest forest in South America after the Amazon, has been losing a staggering 2000 hectares of land per day on average. Guyra Paraguay, a nonprofit organization, claims “30,454 ha, 43,717 ha, 235,601 ha, and 222,475 ha were deforested in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively” in the Argentine portion of the Gran Chaco region alone (Guyra Paraguay, 2018). Corporations are drawn to the Gran Chaco region largely because of the plentiful rainfall, inexpensive land, and the ease of utilizing genetically modified crops. This deforestation has global noteworthiness, as more than half of the greenhouse gases emitted by Argentina are due to changes in land use and livestock, and deforestation threatens to dramatically reduce biodiversity. Policy Options and Enforcement Protecting Indigenous and Peasant Rights The increase of genetically modified soybean production in Argentina has caused many smallholders to lose their land. This taking of land has occurred to the detriment of the rural, indigenous communities, which has led to protests, specifically due to the competition over land claims. In Santiago del Estero, human rights advocates and national authorities started to take notice dating back to the early 1990s. MOCASE, a peasant social movement in Santiago del Estero, was formed to fight for the land rights of peasants and indigenous people and has since become the largest peasant organization in Argentina. A few years after its creation, MOCASE was responsible for creating a national alliance of
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