Antoine, Olivier

The Cattle Settling’s Issues in the Lower Pilcomayo River Basin: New Eldorado or Last Frontier? - 2015.


64

The high global demand of meat, meat products and agricutural raw commodities pushes producers to extend their agricultural and their cattle frontier towards new territories causing strong geopolitical tensions. That’s the case in the Pilcomayo river bassin where the territories, spread over Argentina and Paraguay, are today in the middle of intense land issues with the intention of introducing large-scale cattle breeding. This semi-arid region of South America was already the scene of tensions beetwen both countries about Pilcomayo river’s distribution, but this sudden and brutal pressure resulted in a multiplication of both local and international conflicts. Nevertheless, the transformation of Pilcomayo river bassin into a new eldorado for cattle breeding might already be questionned by the introduction of much more profitable crops such as soy beans. From then on, the future of extensive cattle breeding has to be asked as well as the decision of its preservation, in particular in Argentina where meat consumption represents true political and social issues.