ACUMAR Approves Comprehensive Reforestation Plan for the Matanza Riachuelo Basin

The Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority (ACUMAR) approved on Thursday, through its General Directorate of Political and Social Management, the "Comprehensive Reforestation Plan for the Matanza Riachuelo Basin" (PIR). The measure, formalized through Disposition 1/2026 and signed by the general director Cristian Botana, is part of the "Native Species Multiplication Program, Garden Workshops, and Carbon Footprint Mitigation" (MENTaHC), approved in 2024 by the agency.

According to the considerations of the regulation, the plan aims to fulfill the three objectives set by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in the ruling issued in 2008 in the case "Mendoza, Beatriz Silvia and others vs. National State and others for damages": improving the quality of life of the basin's inhabitants, environmental restoration, and damage prevention. In particular, the disposition states that the plan is linked to the judicial mandate for cleaning the riverbanks and transforming the shoreline into a landscaped area.

The PIR aims, according to the approved annex, the "integral restoration of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin (CMR)", focusing on the restoration of the native landscape, increasing biodiversity, and improving socio-environmental quality. The document details that a large part of the basin's environments have been impoverished compared to their original physiognomy, partly due to the advance of invasive exotic species such as black acacia and castor bean, which reduce the living space of native flora.

The Matanza-Riachuelo basin is a water region of about 2,200 km², measuring 64 km, originating in the province of Buenos Aires, marking the southern limit of the City of Buenos Aires, and flowing into the Río de la Plata. The plan divides the basin into three zones with their own ecological characteristics (low, medium, and high) and includes a list of native flora suitable for each of them, distributed among trees, shrubs, climbers, and herbaceous plants. Among the planned intervention sites are public green spaces, protected areas, zones of influence near those areas, sites of environmental value, urban and peri-urban linear afforestation, biocorridors for roads and railways, and institutional and private interventions, such as reforestation in hospitals, clubs, schools, or community gardens.

The regulation also sets intervention criteria that include prior site evaluation, technical training for the community, the formation of work teams for the control of invasive exotic species, and the promotion of active participation of local communities in all phases of the project, from planning to monitoring.

The execution of the plan will be the responsibility of the Protected Areas Management Coordination, under the supervision of the Community and Territorial Strengthening Directorate, both dependent on the General Directorate of Political and Social Management.

The annex also provides for differentiated maintenance strategies according to the type of site, training aimed at teams already engaged in restoration tasks as well as organized communities interested in joining, and a monitoring and follow-up scheme that includes the collection of ecosystem and social data. The disposition will come into effect the day after its publication in the Official Bulletin.