The National Parks and Reserves of Argentina

Extract

The idea of national parks in Argentina started in 1903 with the gift of 7,500 hectares to the Argentine nation by Francisco P. Moreno, one of the earliest Argentine naturalists. But even this area, since greatly enlarged, did not receive legislative guarantee until 1934, after the late Dr. Hugo Salomon had repeatedly insisted that the integrity of national parks and reserves could only be assured by legal enactment. Fourteen areas, including three still only projected, are set aside as national parks or other forms of nature reserves in Argentina. Of the six northerly reserves all but Iguazú and Finca El Rey belong to the Chaco formation. All the southern reserves lie in the Cordillera of the Andes, except for Laguna Blanca in the Precordillera and the national monument Los Bosques Petri-ficados in the Patagonian plateau. Los Alerces, Nahuel Huapi, Lanin and Iguazú conform more or less to the requirements of national parks laid down by the Convention on Nature Protection and Wild Life Preservation in the Western Hemisphere 1940; this the Argentine Government has signed.