Argentina passes bill loosening protection of its glaciers

Argentina’s Congress has passed a controversial amendment making it easier to mine in glacier regions, a move environmentalists say weakens protections for crucial water sources.

The pioneering Glacier Law, approved in 2010, prohibited all mining and exploration activities in glacier regions by protecting them as water reserves.

The reform shifts the responsibility of defining protected glacier areas from the Argentine Institute for Snow, Ice and Environmental Sciences (Ianigla) to the provincial governments.

President Javier Milei, who backed the reform, said the change “empower[s] the provinces to utilise their resources” and allows mining activities “where there was nothing to protect”.

Argentina’s Senate had already approved the bill in February 2026, so approval by the lower house was the last major hurdle left.

Opponents of the reform argued that it would put a fundamental resource – water – at risk. “Without water, we can’t even think about a growth and development project,” Congresswoman Natalia de la Sota said.

But a backer of the bill, Congresswoman Nancy Picón Martínez, said that the mining industry was being portrayed “as if it were a monster”.

“This law protects glaciers, no matter how much some people want us to believe otherwise,” she said.

Following the reform, glaciers and periglacial environments – which may not be covered by ice but are frozen at least part of the year- will be protected by the national Ianigla inventory until provincial leaders prove they do not serve as “strategic” water reserves.

Credit: bbc.com

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