Argentina eco breaks - Tiera del fuego

Tierra del Fuego, the Land of Fire, is where South America finally funnels into the icy waters of the south: the end of the inhabited globe. Known to its erstwhile indigenous Selk'nam inhabitants as Karunkinka , it gets its Spanish name from the fires that these people lit when Magellan and his crew first sailed fearfully through the newly discovered straits.

Strictly, it comprises the entire archipelago of southern Patagonia, but the term is more commonly applied to just the main island of the group, the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego , which is also known simply as Isla Grande . Roughly a third of the island (some 21,000 square kilometres) is Argentinian, the rest lies across the border in Chile. The region has three principal and strikingly distinct geographical zones - north, central, and southern - but only one principal tourist destination: Ushuaia , in the south. If at all possible, introduce yourself to the island with the stunning aerial views afforded by a flight down to Ushuaia.

Shellfish
Do not collect your own shellfish in Tierra del Fuego, as it is occasionally affected by a deadly poisonous, colourless version of red tide ( marea roja ). Cooking only increases the virulence of red-tide toxins, and you do not build up tolerance by regularly eating seafood. Following a severe outbreak of red-tide related poisonings in the early 1970s, both Chilean and Argentinian authorities introduced strict shellfish controls. Testing is carried out on all seafood deemed to be a potential risk to ensure it is safe for consumption, so you can tuck in to the area's delicious mussels ( cholgas ) in shops and restaurants without fear.

Unaffected by red tide is the undisputed prince of the palate, the centolla (king crab). The crab's spindly legs can measure over a metre from tip to tip, but the meat comes from the body, with an average individual yielding some 300g. The less savoury practice of catching them with traps baited with dolphin or penguin meat has almost been stamped out by the imposition of hefty fines by both Chilean and Argentinian authorities, but despite controls on size limits, they are still subject to rampant over-fishing. Canned king crab is served off-season, but is bland and not worth the prices charged.

Birds
Parrots and hummingbirds are the type of birds you associate more with the steamy, verdant jungles of the Amazon than the frigid extremes of Tierra del Fuego. Nevertheless, trust your eyes not your judgement, for you can see both in Ushuaia's Parque Nacional. The unmistakeably garrulous austral parakeet is the world's most southerly parrot, inhabiting these temperate forests year round. The Selk'nam christened this bird Kerrhprrh , in onomatopoeic imitation of its call. Once upon a time, according to their beliefs, all Fuegian trees had been evergreen, and Kerrhprrh it was who transformed some into deciduous forests, painting them autumnal reds with the feathers of his breast. The tiny green-backed firecrown is the planet's most southerly hummingbird, and has been glimpsed - albeit rarely - flickering about flowering shrubs in summer. Known to the Selk'nam by the graceful name of Sinu K-Tam (Daughter of the Wind), this diminutive creature was, strangely, believed by them to be the offspring of Ohchin the whale and Sinu , the wind.

Forest
At the end of 1993, a US multinational company, Trillium Co., bought 2700 square kilometres of forest in the Chilean half of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and followed this up with a purchase, in 1994, of almost a thousand square kilometres in the Argentinian half. Faced with ever tightening environmental legislation and well- organized pressure groups at home, Trillium seemed to have found easy pickings in Tierra del Fuego: vast swathes of ancient temperate hardwood forest in an area with a tiny population base and a young, emergent political structure. Their interest lay primarily in a wood ideal for the furniture industry: Patagonian lenga (high deciduous beech).

The issue had all the hallmarks of a neocolonial hit-and-run raid. No thorough, independent environmental impact studies had been carried out; no system had been elaborated for regular supervision of the company's logging practices; and no consideration had been given to the potential value of the forests as a future tourist resource. Envisaging a repeat of the disastrous rape of the temperate forests similar to that which has occurred in recent decades in mainland Chilean Patagonia, environmental groups Defensores de los Bosques Chilenos on the Chilean side, and Finis Terrae , based in Ushuaia, resolved not to let Trillium steamroller local concerns. The groups scored several legal victories along the way, despite woefully inadequate resources. In 1999, just after logging had started in Chile, permission to proceed with logging in Argentina was finally granted, despite petitions that demonstrated the remarkable degree of public concern about the issue on an island that depends heavily on tourism, but these decisions are being appealed against.

Environmental damage could well be catastrophic. Soil erosion is a great fear: topsoils on the island are very thin, winds are strong, and there's heavy rainfall. A diverse native forest ecosystem can absorb up to fifty times as much rainfall as agricultural land; with much of this felled, the purity of the island's lakes and streams would be affected by run-off and wood pulp. Regeneration takes at least thirty years, with most lenga trees taking over a hundred years to reach maturity. Naturally, environmental groups would like to see the cessation of all logging if possible, believing the value of the forests far exceeds the value of their timber. However, if logging is to continue, the groups aim to ensure that the local community benefits in some way, with wood being processed on the island for high-value manufactured items such as furniture parts, and not just exported as planks. Their campaign will focus on ensuring that the company is committed to sustainable practices, so that promised jobs and investment do indeed prove to be long term.