Rights to land and resources in Argentina's Alerces National Park

Alerces National Park, created in 1937 to protect temperate forest ecosystems in Argentina's southern Andes, contains 42 families within its borders. Grazing is the principal livelihood strategy of most park inhabitants. Domesticated animals, however, are not compatible with the conservation objectives of park authorities, who are promoting tourism as a sustainable alternative to livestock. Park inhabitants are less enthusiastic about tourism. They lack a meaningful role in negotiating rights to land and resources, and they have been marginalised from conservation planning. This could be alleviated by titling parts of Alerces National Park to park inhabitants and providing them with shared management responsibilities.