According to AGN, the advances in the care of flora, fauna, and the environment in which the Argentines live are "poor" and "isolated", there isn’t a "strategy or goals that contribute to sustain it." The General Auditor's Office (AGN) also remarked that this happens despite the fact that since 2003 there is a National Biodiversity Strategy that was implemented two years ago.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) has its origins in 1992 and seeks primarily to "conserve biodiversity in all its forms". What is biodiversity? Under this Convention it’s "the wide variety of life on earth. This plurality is the basis of operation for our ecosystem as well as essential for human life."

To achieve this purpose, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (SAyDS) has different offices under its orbit that should develop a National Strategy on Biological Diversity (ENB). This is compounded by a group of people that specialize in Biodiversity Conservation (GTCB) that should "formulate and execute that strategy."

It is interesting to see the care that is given by the Ministry of Environment to the wildlife. There is an office under their orbit that specifically addresses the "protection and recovering of endangered species." This unit is responsible for several projects, including the care of endangered species, the protection of Wildlife Habitat or the Management of Guanaco. In all cases, the watchdog said that "there is no evidence of follow-up" so "their effectiveness is unknown."

On this point the auditors make a very particular observation: "there is a significant imbalance between actions for the conservation and management of wild fauna and flora. When it comes to the fauna there is a law of Conservation (22,421), while for the latter there is no law. "The management of these laws is the responsibility of BCWG.”

The report states that "there are scientific databases on the conservation status of many native species," but that "there they were never integrated into one diagnosis".

As a matter a fact, AGN noted in the report published in May of this year that the watchdog “failed to detect any evidence that performance is actually measured or that there is any documentation that supports the GTCB’s work”. Neither found any reliable statistical information.

This last point is probably related to the "lack of an information system that could organize the data". The audit found that every action taken prior to 2003 was not properly registered.

With so many shortcomings, AGN affirmed that the unit "lost executive functions in the operation of the strategy, has no organization and is not planning to find any, and has scarce human resources to carry out their work."

Funding

A total of $35.5 million pesos were approved for the Department of Environment and Social Development’s budget for 2012. This money was meant for conservation, management, planning, and organization of the environment and biodiversity.

However, "neither the National Biodiversity Strategy nor the Working Group had a specific budget to carry out their specific tasks”.