ABSTRACT
Argentina has a strong trajectory of recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including constitutional provisions enforcing them. The implementation gap is still wide, and communities keep being displaced from their ancestral land in a process that Harvey (2003; 2004) labelled as ‘accumulation by dispossession’. We discuss the case of the Qolla community of Las Animas as an example of the lack of implementation of the legal provisions on Indigenous rights and the institutional weakness affecting community forest governance in Argentina. We also show the traditional Qolla arrangements regarding the sustainable management of their ancestral territory, in contrast with the unsustainable land-use changes triggered by the expansion of the agricultural frontier. We finalise our chapter reflecting on the positive changes in the historical struggles of Indigenous Peoples to secure tenure of their ancestral land, including enhanced community organisation, access to higher education, and mobilisation of support of grassroots and civil society organisations to make court claims.
