Environment

Giant 3D film in Buenos Aires warns of jaguar extinction in Argentina

Buenos Aires, Jun 14 (EFE).- The ecological organization Greenpeace on Tuesday staged a giant film event in Buenos Aires to warn about the situation of the last 20 jaguars in Argentina’s northern Gran Chaco region, a species that is in danger of extinction “due to the destruction of their forests.”

The performance, staged in the main hall of the Plaza de Constitucion Railroad Station, one of the largest venues in the Argentine capital, included a huge projection of more than 600 square meters (6,455 square feet) on the walls and ceilings of the building’s interior and prepared using cutting edge 3D technology According to a statement released by Greenpeace, the initiative took more than 700 hours of work and included using a “photogrammetric scanner” to recreate and portray the area where the jaguars live and then animated 3D and 2D, assorted video techniques and other special effects to create the film.

“We’re calling on people to join in the defense of the forests and of the last 20 jaguars, who scientists estimate still survive in the Gran Chaco Argentino,” said Hernan Giardini, the coordinator of the Greenpeace Forests campaign, in remarks released by the organization.

“Despite being a species that is in critical danger and is protected by law as a National Natural Monument, the areas cleared for soybeans and livestock continue to destroy their habitat, putting them on the verge of extinction,” he added.

The ecological organization filed a lawsuit with the Argentine Supreme Court to request “Deforestation Zero” in the jaguars’ territory and, in an additional preventive measure, it called for the suspension of clearing more land for agricultural purposes until the legal proceedings are completely resolved.

The provinces affected by that suspension would be Santiago del Estero, Salta, Chaco and Formosa, which were denounced before the high court for “systematically” violating the Forest Law and putting the species at risk.

“More deforestation means more climate crisis, more flooding, more disease, more dislocation of peasants and indigenous people, more loss of wood, medicines and food and more disappearance of species in danger of extinction, such as the yaguarete,” Giardini emphasized.

According to Greenpeace, each jaguar needs at least 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of well-conserved forest to survive.

Since the implementation of the Forest Law in late 2007, more than three million hectares (7.5 million acres) has been deforested in Argentina, 75 percent of it in the four above-mentioned provinces.

EFE jacb/rgm/rrt/bp

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