Aremote Patagonian town that's just beginning to prosper by guiding tourists through the virgin forests nearby is being shaken by the realization that it's sitting on a gold mine. Literally. More than 3,000 worried Esquel residents recently took to the streets in protests aimed at assuring that their neat community of 28,000 beco mes an ecotourism center, not a gold-rush town. 

    Esquel's plight is winning attention from international conservation and environmental groups such as Greenpeace. In Argentina, the town has become a national symbol in the debate over exploitation vs. preservation of the country's vast natural resources.

    About 3.2 million acres already are under contract for mineral exploration in poor and sparsely settled Chubut Province, where Esquel is, near the southern tip of South America. Whether Meridian Gold Corp. gets its open-pit gold mine outside Esquel could determine the fate of mining in Patagonia, a pristine region spanning southern Argentina and Chile.

    Meridian's project, about 5 miles outside Esquel at a higher elevation, is about 20 miles from a national park that preserves rate trees known as alerces, a southern relative of California's giant sequoia. Some of them have been growing serenely in the temperate rain forest for more than 3,000 years.

    The greatest fear is that cyanide, which is used to leach gold from ore, will drain downhill and poison Esquel's and possibly the park's water supplies. The mine will use 180 tons of the deadly chemical each month. Although many townspeople and some geologists disagree, the company says any excess cyanide would drain away from Esquel.

    "We won't allow them to tear things up and leave us with the toxic aftermath," said Felix Aguilar, 28, as he piloted a boatload of tourists through a lake in the Alerces National Park. "We take care of things here, so that the entire world can hear and see nature in its pure state. The world must help us prevent this."

    American Douglas Tomkins, the founder of the Esprit clothing line and a prominent global conservationist, has bought more than 800,000 wilderness acres in Chile to preserve alerces and protect what's left of the temperate rain forest. Ted Turner, the communications magnate, also has bought land in Argentine Patagonia with an eye to conservation.

    A young English botanist named Charles Darwin, the author of the theory of evolution, was the first European to see alerces, with trunks that had a circumference of 130 feet. He gave the tree its generic name, Fitzroya cupressoides, for the captain of his ship, Robert Fitzroy.

    Argentina, pressed by the United States, Canada, the World Bank and other global lenders, rewrote its mining laws in the 1990s to encourage foreign investment. Mining companies received incentives such as 30 years without new taxes and duty-free imports of earth-moving equipment.

    Argentina took in more than ＄1 billion over the past decade by granting exploration contracts for precious metals to more than 70 foreign and domestic companies. If the country were to turn away a major investor, the message to its mining sector would be chilling.

    Residents also complain that Argentina hasn't given nature-based tourism a chance."If the government invested in us a tenth of the effort they put into mining, things would be a lot different here," grumbled Randal Williams, 73, who rents tourist cabins in Esquel.

    Forest ecologist Paul Alaback, a University of Montana professor who studies the alerces, said Argentine authorities could gain from Alaska's successful nature-based tourism. "Nature-based tourism would mean less jobs immediately but would be sustainable. You'd be building on something that is going to grow, not going to go away," he said.

    巴塔哥尼亞一處偏遠(yuǎn)的小鎮(zhèn)因?yàn)榘l(fā)展附近一處原始林的觀光業(yè)正漸趨繁榮，在這個(gè)節(jié)骨眼，卻如晴天霹靂般得知，當(dāng)?shù)卦瓉?lái)蘊(yùn)含金礦。沒(méi)錯(cuò)。三千多位憂心如焚的艾斯圭爾居民最近走上街頭抗議，要求將這處擁有兩萬(wàn)八千居民的凈地作為生態(tài)旅游中心，不要淪為淘金城。

    艾斯圭爾的窘境正獲得“綠色和平”等國(guó)際保育及環(huán)保團(tuán)體的高度關(guān)切。在爭(zhēng)論阿根廷豐富的自然資源究竟該開(kāi)發(fā)或保育的議題上，該鎮(zhèn)儼然成為全國(guó)的象征。

    艾斯圭爾位于接近南美洲大陸極南點(diǎn)、貧窮而人煙稀少的丘布省內(nèi)，礦物探勘合約涵蓋了該省近三百二十萬(wàn)畝的土地。巴塔哥尼亞高原是橫跨阿根廷與智利兩國(guó)南部的化外之地，而該地采礦業(yè)的命運(yùn)，將取決于MDG公司能否取得艾斯圭爾外圍露天金礦的開(kāi)采權(quán)。

    MDG公司計(jì)劃開(kāi)采的地點(diǎn)約在艾斯圭爾五里外海拔高一點(diǎn)的地方，跟一座國(guó)家公園約二十里，這座國(guó)家公園保育著稀有的落葉柏科樹(shù)木，一種美國(guó)加州紅木的南方品種。有些柏樹(shù)已在這片溫帶雨林安然度過(guò)三千多年了。

    最嚴(yán)重的威脅是，在礦砂濾取黃金的過(guò)程中使用的氰化物將會(huì)向下排放，污染艾斯圭爾、甚至國(guó)家公園的水源。開(kāi)礦過(guò)程每個(gè)月會(huì)使用一百八十噸的這種致命化學(xué)物質(zhì)。盡管許多鎮(zhèn)民和部分地質(zhì)學(xué)家不同意，該公司表示，所有過(guò)量的氰化物將全數(shù)排出艾斯?fàn)柟纭?br />
    二十八歲的菲力克司亞奇拉在帶領(lǐng)一船旅客瀏覽落葉林國(guó)家公園一座湖泊時(shí)說(shuō)：“我們不會(huì)允許他們把事情搞砸，把毒害留給我們。有我們悉心呵護(hù)這里的一切，全世界才得以欣賞飽覽此地純樸的自然之美。世界應(yīng)該和我們一起守護(hù)這里。”

    美國(guó)服飾品牌Esprit的創(chuàng)始人，也是國(guó)際知名自然保育人士的杜格拉斯，湯姆金斯，為保育落葉林及溫帶雨林內(nèi)僅存的生物，買(mǎi)下智利八十多萬(wàn)畝的土地。媒體巨子泰德·透納著眼于環(huán)境保育，也買(mǎi)下阿根廷巴塔哥尼亞土地。

    進(jìn)化論的發(fā)表人—年輕的英國(guó)植物學(xué)家查爾斯·達(dá)爾文，是第一位見(jiàn)識(shí)落葉柏樹(shù)干圓周長(zhǎng)達(dá)一百三十尺的歐洲人。他似他船長(zhǎng)的名字羅伯費(fèi)茲·洛伊，為這種樹(shù)取了學(xué)名“費(fèi)茲洛柏”（即：智利柏）。

    受到美國(guó)、加拿大、世界銀行及全球其他債權(quán)者頻頻施壓的阿根廷，為了促進(jìn)外商投資，在九○年代修訂了礦業(yè)法令。給予礦采業(yè)的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)措施包括三十年免征新稅與免稅進(jìn)口礦業(yè)開(kāi)采設(shè)備等等。

    阿根廷過(guò)去十年內(nèi)與國(guó)內(nèi)外七十多家業(yè)者簽訂貴重礦物開(kāi)采合約，獲得十億美元以上的利潤(rùn)。如果拒絕主要投資客戶(hù)，阿根廷的采礦業(yè)將面臨蕭條的景況。

    當(dāng)?shù)鼐用褚脖г拱⒏�廷政府不肯給自然觀光業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)。在艾斯圭爾經(jīng)營(yíng)觀光小屋出租，現(xiàn)年七十三歲的藍(lán)道·威廉斯抱怨：“當(dāng)初如果政府肯花他們投資采礦業(yè)資金的十分之一在我們身上的話，事情就會(huì)改觀了。”

    蒙大拿大學(xué)教授，也是研究落葉植物的森林生態(tài)學(xué)者保羅，雅勒貝克表示，阿根廷當(dāng)局可以仿效阿拉斯加自然旅游業(yè)的成功之道。“在當(dāng)下，發(fā)展自然旅游業(yè)的確意味著工作機(jī)會(huì)立即減少，但它卻能永續(xù)經(jīng)營(yíng)。你應(yīng)該要去建設(shè)會(huì)茁壯成長(zhǎng)的東西，而非日漸消逝的事物。”