Environmental institutionalization and competing paradigms in the Paraná river delta

Abstract

Wetlands in Argentina are undergoing rapid transformation, with a significant reduction in their area due to changes in land use, intentional fires, and unprecedented droughts over the past eight decades. Despite this critical situation, the country lacks a strong regulatory framework for their protection. This paper analyzes the process of institutionalizing the environmental paradigm in the Paraná Delta (PD)—one of the most important wetlands in the country—between 1994 and 2022. This process is understood as a complex and non-linear historical evolution marked by phases, disputes, and obstacles. The study examines how certain approaches to environmental protection and conservation have been gradually incorporated into laws, policies, and public institutions. The analysis adopts a new institutionalism approach, which enables an understanding of institutional configurations in contexts of conflict, continuity, and change. We argue that the level of institutionalization of the environmental paradigm in the PD is low, due to tensions between individualistic property law principles and collective rights. Furthermore, it is argued that the most significant advances in this area have not resulted from coherent state planning, but rather from contentious processes driven by social, judicial, and scientific actors who dispute meanings and forms of territorial regulation. Drawing on legal sources, regulations, jurisprudence, and historical background, the paper addresses key aspects of the institutionalization of the environmental paradigm in the PD.