A good outcome for the capybaras of Nordelta. The San Martín Administrative Litigation Appeals Chamber decided to overturn the lifting of the injunction that had allowed the urban development in Nordelta, the most emblematic private neighborhood in the Buenos Aires suburbs.
With this decision, judges Jorge Saúlquin and Luciano Enrici warned that, without clear limits, the ecosystem and species were “defenseless against irreversible damage.”
The ruling sets a key precedent in the relationship between urbanization and environmental conservation, by ordering the neighborhood to adapt to the nature of the wetland it occupies.
A halt to mistreatment and real estate expansion
Attorney Nora Nouche, representative of the Nuevo Delta Ecodefense Neighborhood Association, celebrated the judicial resolution and described it as a real halt to mistreatment, after years of complaints about electrified fences, beatings, run-overs, drownings, and covert poisonings against the capybaras.
The case targets a complete network of actors: the Nordelta Neighborhood Association S.A., real estate developers, the Municipality, National Parks, and the National Secretariat of Tourism and Environment. For the plaintiffs, the problem goes beyond a neighborhood and reflects an urban matrix that turned the wetland into a business.
Control methods without scientific basis
The Chamber questioned the “control methods” applied by the private neighborhood, noting that they lacked scientific basis. It ordered a halt to the chemical castration with unauthorized products and any experimental intervention on the fauna.
Only sanitary measures endorsed by the provincial environmental authority will be allowed, such as:
- Controlled vasectomies.
- Sterilizations under veterinary protocol.
- Vaccines recognized in official records.
The ruling also prohibits fumigations with agrochemicals that harm the wetland’s flora or fauna, except under strict exceptions for public health reasons.
Suspension of works and limits on expansion
The resolution suspends all works that alter lakes, shores, or native vegetation in unconsolidated areas. This includes landfills, drainage, sheet pile walls, and any infrastructure designed to enclose or displace animals.
Additionally, new stages of real estate development are prohibited without a Cumulative Environmental Impact Study and without citizen participation. Expansion cannot continue as if the wetland were an empty lot.
The Chamber only allows minor interventions in already consolidated lots and biological corridors planned in provincial plans, always under technical supervision.
Capybaras as a protected species
The capybara is a protected species in the province of Buenos Aires, so any management must prioritize its welfare and ecological balance. Coexistence with wildlife cannot be resolved with fences or electrified barriers: the capybaras were there before the neighborhood.
The ruling obliges Nordelta to comply with the law and the nature of the wetland, recognizing that urbanization must adapt to the ecosystem and the capybaras, not the other way around.
The decision by the San Martín court represents a victory for native wildlife and the defense of wetlands. By suspending works, prohibiting experimental control methods, and requiring cumulative environmental studies, the ruling challenges the model of real estate expansion over fragile ecosystems.
The capybaras, turned into a symbol of resistance, have achieved that the court prioritizes nature over urban business. Nordelta will now have to coexist with the wetland it chose to occupy, under rules that ensure the protection of biodiversity and respect for ecological balance.
