Scholarlink

<p>Policy interventions designed to resolve human–wildlife conflicts often produce unintended consequences for environmental governance and livelihood security. This article examines Argentina’s Law 8846, a compensation program for predator-related livestock losses, to analyze how well-intentioned policies may exacerbate the problems they aim to address. Drawing on mixed-methods research conducted in Malargüe, Argentina, the analysis shows how the law’s design and implementation—particularly temporal restrictions, bureaucratic barriers, and partial valuation of losses—contribute to a process conceptualized here as <i>compensatory exclusion</i>. Empirical evidence indicates a 37% decline in goat populations between 2008 and 2018, within a context of increasing climatic and ecological stress. The findings suggest that compensation mechanisms mediate and, in some cases, intensify pastoral vulnerability by limiting households’ capacity to adapt to overlapping pressures. Rather than functioning as neutral safeguards, compensation policies institutionalize marginalization by failing to recognize transhumance as a form of socio-ecological infrastructure. The article argues that effective environmental governance requires moving beyond technical policy fixes toward frameworks that integrate local knowledge, mobility, and pastoral rights. This case offers broader insights for the design of conservation policies seeking to reconcile environmental protection and livelihood security in dryland regions.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

When compensation fails: how predator compensation policies accelerate pastoralist displacement in Argentine drylands

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月20日

查看全文
  • Oscar Soto

摘要

Policy interventions designed to resolve human–wildlife conflicts often produce unintended consequences for environmental governance and livelihood security. This article examines Argentina’s Law 8846, a compensation program for predator-related livestock losses, to analyze how well-intentioned policies may exacerbate the problems they aim to address. Drawing on mixed-methods research conducted in Malargüe, Argentina, the analysis shows how the law’s design and implementation—particularly temporal restrictions, bureaucratic barriers, and partial valuation of losses—contribute to a process conceptualized here as compensatory exclusion. Empirical evidence indicates a 37% decline in goat populations between 2008 and 2018, within a context of increasing climatic and ecological stress. The findings suggest that compensation mechanisms mediate and, in some cases, intensify pastoral vulnerability by limiting households’ capacity to adapt to overlapping pressures. Rather than functioning as neutral safeguards, compensation policies institutionalize marginalization by failing to recognize transhumance as a form of socio-ecological infrastructure. The article argues that effective environmental governance requires moving beyond technical policy fixes toward frameworks that integrate local knowledge, mobility, and pastoral rights. This case offers broader insights for the design of conservation policies seeking to reconcile environmental protection and livelihood security in dryland regions.