While four active fire outbreaks advance over Patagonia, the Government projects a budget cut of 71.6% in fire management by 2026.
Currently, the focus is on Chubut, where the flames have consumed about 12,000 hectares and caused the evacuation of 17 families.
Although 22 of the 32 active outbreaks since last Monday, January 5, have been controlled thanks to the isolated rains of recent days, firefighters are still working in the area, and there is concern about the irreversible environmental damage.
Budget cut amid the emergency
According to an analysis by the Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), the National Fire Management Service (SNMF) failed to execute 25% of the budget in 2025.
This budget cut in fire management amounts to nearly $20 billion that were not transferred to address the fires and assist in their prevention.
For 2026, moreover, the Budget Law approved by Congress foresees a real drop of 71.6% in the funds allocated for fighting and preventing fires compared to 2025.
In comparative terms, the budget would be 68.9% lower than in 2023, when the SNMF executed 100% of the allocated resources.
Thus, the share of fire management within the total national state budget would be reduced from 0.032% in 2023 to 0.014% in 2026.
In 2024, the SNMF executed only 22% of the budget, despite it being the period with the highest number of fire outbreaks in the last eight years.
This under-execution explained a real drop of 81% in the budget between 2023 and 2024.
In 2025, execution improved to 76%, but the slight real increase in the budget (8.5%) was concentrated in the last quarter.
Four active fires in the region
The Federal Emergency Agency reported four active outbreaks in the Patagonian region, with the most severe in Puerto Patriada, El Hoyo (Chubut).
The Chubut governor Ignacio Torres assured that the fire was started intentionally, after confirming the use of accelerants.
“It is the worst environmental tragedy in 20 years,” said the provincial Secretary of Forests, Abel Nievas.
Fires were also reported in Puerto Café (Los Alerces National Park) and in areas of Aluminé, Neuquén.
The Provincial Fire Management Service (SPMF) reported that there are 17 evacuated families and two self-evacuated in the El Hoyo area.
The impact of the adjustment on Fire Management operational capacities
The budget cut will directly impact key capacities for prevention and combat against fires, according to FARN.
The tools affected by the reduction of funds include:
- Flight hours: reduction from 5,100 (2023) to 3,100 projected
- Early warning reports: drop from 2,310 in 2025 to 1,850 in 2026
- Infrastructure and equipment: insufficient funds for maintenance
- Brigadier training: limited resources for training
- Labor improvements: precarious conditions with no possibility of improvement
“The logic of action is always with the fires already consumed and never with a preventive character,” denounced Ariel Slipak, coordinator of the FARN Research area.
Slipak added that “not only is more budget needed, but also to address the causes of the fires related to land use.”
The budget cut against fires, another example of the cut in public policies
More than 20 environmental organizations warned that the fires in Patagonia are “another alarming symptom of the global climate crisis.”
The organizations also pointed out “the state inaction in terms of mitigation and prevention” as an aggravating factor of the situation.
This scenario was compounded by the dissolution of the National Fire Management Fund in 2025, a mechanism that guaranteed specific and automatic financing.
These resources were mostly allocated to the rental of machinery and transport to extinguish fires already started, not to prevent them.
Argentina continues without incorporating environmental crimes into the Penal Code, which weakens any structural response to intentional fires.
“Those who denounce intentionality are often the same actors who push for budget cuts that reduce the State’s capacity,” concluded FARN.
