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的小鎮因為發展附近一處原始林的觀光業正漸趨繁榮，在這個節骨眼，卻如晴天霹靂般得知，當地原來蘊含金礦。沒錯。三千多位憂心如焚的艾斯圭爾居民最近走上街頭抗議，要求將這處擁有兩萬八千居民的凈地作為生態旅游中心，不要淪為淘金城。

    艾斯圭爾的窘境正獲得“綠色和平”等國際保育及環保團體的高度關切。在爭論阿根廷豐富的自然資源究竟該開發或保育的議題上，該鎮儼然成為全國的象征。

    艾斯圭爾位于接近南美洲大陸極南點、貧窮而人煙稀少的丘布省內，礦物探勘合約涵蓋了該省近三百二十萬畝的土地。巴塔哥尼亞高原是橫跨阿根廷與智利兩國南部的化外之地，而該地采礦業的命運，將取決于MDG公司能否取得艾斯圭爾外圍露天金礦的開采權。

    MDG公司計劃開采的地點約在艾斯圭爾五里外海拔高一點的地方，跟一座國家公園約二十里，這座國家公園保育著稀有的落葉柏科樹木，一種美國加州紅木的南方品種。有些柏樹已在這片溫帶雨林安然度過三千多年了。

    最嚴重的威脅是，在礦砂濾取黃金的過程中使用的氰化物將會向下排放，污染艾斯圭爾、甚至國家公園的水源。開礦過程每個月會使用一百八十噸的這種致命化學物質。盡管許多鎮民和部分地質學家不同意，該公司表示，所有過量的氰化物將全數排出艾斯爾圭。

    二十八歲的菲力克司亞奇拉在帶領一船旅客瀏覽落葉林國家公園一座湖泊時說：“我們不會允許他們把事情搞砸，把毒害留給我們。有我們悉心呵護這里的一切，全世界才得以欣賞飽覽此地純樸的自然之美。世界應該和我們一起守護這里。”

    美國服飾品牌Esprit的創始人，也是國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僅存的生物，買下智利八十多萬畝的土地。媒體巨子泰德·透納著眼于環境保育，也買下阿根廷巴塔哥尼亞土地。

    進化論的發表人—年輕的英國植物學家查爾斯·達爾文，是第一位見識落葉柏樹干圓周長達一百三十尺的歐洲人。他似他船長的名字羅伯費茲·洛伊，為這種樹取了學名“費茲洛柏”（即：智利柏）。

    受到美國、加拿大、世界銀行及全球其他債權者頻頻施壓的阿根廷，為了促進外商投資，在九○年代修訂了礦業法令。給予礦采業的獎勵措施包括三十年免征新稅與免稅進口礦業開采設備等等。

    阿根廷過去十年內與國內外七十多家業者簽訂貴重礦物開采合約，獲得十億美元以上的利潤。如果拒絕主要投資客戶，阿根廷的采礦業將面臨蕭條的景況。

    當地居民也抱怨阿根廷政府不肯給自然觀光業機會。在艾斯圭爾經營觀光小屋出租，現年七十三歲的藍道·威廉斯抱怨：“當初如果政府肯花他們投資采礦業資金的十分之一在我們身上的話，事情就會改觀了。”

    蒙大拿大學教授，也是研究落葉植物的森林生態學者保羅，雅勒貝克表示，阿根廷當局可以仿效阿拉斯加自然旅游業的成功之道。“在當下，發展自然旅游業的確意味著工作機會立即減少，但它卻能永續經營。你應該要去建設會茁壯成長的東西，而非日漸消逝的事物。”