Fifteen years have passed since the sanction of the Glaciers Law, which came about after strong pressure from civil society, the scientific community, and environmental organizations.
The law became a landmark in Argentina’s environmental legal history by establishing the protection of glaciers and periglacial environments as strategic water reserves and national natural heritage.
What is happening today and what are the environmental, regulatory, and policy challenges that apply.
15 Years of the Glaciers Law: the Situation and the Demand
The Glaciers Law also made Argentina the first country in the world to enact a national regulation for the protection of these ecosystems. It is an internationally valued precedent in the midst of the climate crisis, which is now at risk due to denialist policies that seek to reverse this progress.
During these 15 years, the law has faced challenges from sectors linked to mega-mining, which sought to limit its scope. However, in 2019, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld its constitutionality, establishing it as an essential tool for the country’s environmental policy.
The ruling reaffirmed that glaciers and the periglacial environment are public assets and that, in times of conflict, collective rights such as access to water take precedence over individual interests.
“In our country, glaciers are essential as they function as our water factories. What mega-mining threatens to take away from us when it challenges the law are our basins and rivers,” explains Enrique Viale, president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers.
“They feed populations beyond provincial borders from the mountain range. A vast network of life depends on them, including economic activity and the health of our ecosystems,” he adds. “In that sense, glaciers and their periglacial environment are life factories. They are increasingly threatened by the climate crisis, and that is why we must protect them more than ever,” he emphasizes.
Current Threats and Pending Challenges
The rapid retreat of glaciers, exacerbated by the global climate crisis, poses immediate challenges for the implementation of the Law. In recent years, the greatest glacier loss on record has been recorded, and in Argentina, glacier retreat is the dominant trend in monitored glaciers.
From Greenpeace Argentina, warnings are issued about the urgent need to ensure effective controls and real protection measures for these strategic reserves of fresh water, rather than regressing in their care with attempts to invalidate the Law.
“The unprecedented retreat of glaciers exposes the fragility of our water security. Caring for them is a duty to current and future generations, because without glaciers, there is no possible future,” states Agostina Rossi Serra, biodiversity specialist with the local NGO.
Experts warn that, along with promises of significant economic gains, today the arguments of energy transition and the extraction of critical minerals are used to justify the relaxation of the Law. This also paves the way for extractive projects in areas that should remain protected.
They also highlight that the Incentive Regime for Major Investments (RIGI) grants extraordinary benefits to mining corporations, increasing pressure to violate environmental regulations.
“The paradox is that, in the name of energy transition, they are proposing to destroy ecosystems that are currently helping us protect the planet,” adds Pía Marchegiani, Deputy Executive Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN).
“The Glaciers Law had broad popular and scientific support. Scientific evidence has advanced in these 15 years and confirms that it is an ecosystem that performs vital functions in water supply and climate change mitigation,” she asserts.
The Demand from Local Communities
In the territories, communities have been denouncing that, even though the Law exists, it is not always enforced. The Jáchal No Se Toca Assembly recalled that, 10 years after the cyanide and mercury spill at Veladero, impacts on the Jáchal River basin persist.
Community experience has become evidence of shortcomings in the control system, they argue. “We recall that, in 2018, Judge Sebastián Casanello brought to trial the case against former Environment Secretary Juan José Mussi and former IANIGLA Director Ricardo Villalba for violating the Glaciers Law.
In his ruling, he stated that they prepared a document in contradiction with the law that prevented the inventory and protection of ice bodies in the San Juan mountain range. There operates the Veladero mine owned by Barrick Gold.
Casanello concluded that these breaches affected fundamental human rights, such as access to a healthy environment and water, which harmed our community,” stated Saúl Zeballos, spokesperson for the Jáchal No Se Toca Assembly.
Challenges Ahead
Experts agree that protecting the Law from modification attempts is essential to ensure its validity.
In this regard, they aim to strengthen controls, ensure transparency of public information, guarantee adequate budgets for glacier monitoring and periglacial environment, and for inventory updates are key measures.
Fifteen years after its enactment, the Glaciers Law remains a fundamental pillar of Argentina’s environmental policy.
