Bartoli, Jorge et al v. Santa Fe Province

In 2020, a group of individuals and NGOs filed two similar claims against the Province of Santa Fe, challenging its management of fishing activities in the face of a critical lowering of the Paraná River levels. Together with a precautionary measure, the plaintiffs asked the judge to order the Province to elaborate an integral and participative Plan to protect the river basin’s aquatic fauna and fish resources. Although the claim made only a passing reference to climate change to highlight the increasing pressure that the aquatic fauna is suffering and will suffer due to climatic changes, the Public Prosecutor introduced a climate focus to the case. On May 31, 2021, the Public Prosecution Office intervened in the case as a party, supporting the plaintiffs’ stance and asking for new remedies from the judge. Among other arguments, the Prosecutor observed that the second Argentinean NDC had identified the “extraordinarily low water levels in the rivers” causing problems to “subsistence fishermen…” as a climate risk for the Santa Fe region and referred to the IPCC reports and the Paris Agreement to allege the need for public authorities to implement climate adaptation measures, including the need of livelihood diversification of vulnerable groups. According to the Prosecutor, in this case, this was connected to the effective functioning and implementation of two institutional mechanisms: the Provincial Reconversion Council and the Fishery Reconversion and Fishermen's Assistance Fund. The Prosecutor observed that these two mechanisms, which were not currently functioning, had been created with aims that ‘certainly constitute climate adaptation measures’ to protect vulnerable groups of fishermen in the region. In this sense, the Prosecutor maintained that their “implementation is an urgent tool for a satisfactory solution to the socio-environmental conflict suffered by the fishermen of Santa Fe and the ecosystem of the Paraná River, not only in terms of the current low water levels, but also those that will continue to occur due to climate change.” On June 22, 2023, the Court decided the case in favor of the plaintiffs and, among other measures, ordered the Province to elaborate an integral, informed, public, and participative “Strategic Plan for the sustainable use of the aquatic resources.” Even though the Court avoided mentioning climate change or climate adaptation in its judgment, it engaged with and sustained the Public Prosecutor’s arguments regarding the need to implement both the Provincial Reconversion Council and the Fishery Reconversion and Fishermen's Assistance Fund in order to allow for the “reconversion, adaptation, and diversification of the fishing activity and its social actors, with the clear objective of cushioning the impact that possible situations of closure or restrictions to the activity resulting from environmental crises could have on their economies.” The Province of Santa Fe has appealed the judgment. On April 23, 2024, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the District Court. The Province of Santa Fe decided not to appeal.