The Iberá Provincial Reserve is a provincial protected area in the north-west of Corrientes Province, north-eastern Argentina. Established on 15 April 1983, it contains a mix of swamps, bogs, stagnant lakes, lagoons, natural sloughs and courses of water. With an area of about, the reserve spans a significant 14% of the Corrientes province, and is the largest protected area in the country. The reserve protects a portion of the Iberá Wetlands, a greater system of marshes of, and one of the most important fresh water reservoirs in the continent. In 2002 an area of has been listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar convention. The reserve contains both Iberá Provincial Park and Iberá National Park within its boundaries. The remaining area is mostly private cattle ranches. Iberá Provincial Park was created in 2009 from public lands controlled by Corrientes Province, and covers an area of 5530 km². It lies in the southwestern portion of the reserve. Iberá National Park was created by an act of the Argentinian Congress on December 5, 2018. It lies in the center of the reserve, and covers an area 1,381.4 km². park was created from former private cattle ranches acquired since 1999 by the Conservation Land Trust–Argentina, a private foundation established by the conservationists Doug and Kristine Tompkins. In 2015 the Conservation Land Trust donated the lands to the Argentine state to create the park. The Conservation Land Trust removed most of the cattle from the lands they acquired, and stopped the practice of burning the land to increase cattle fodder. Managed fires have been used to encourage recovery of wild plants and animals, and interior fences were removed to allow wildlife to move freely. Conservation Land Trust is hoping to develop sustainable eco-tourism to support the local economy and build support for further conservation.
Description
Throughout the area several permanent lagoons of different size can be distinguished; the largest of them are the eponymous Iberá and Luna, on which banks the village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini was founded. The lagoons Fernández, Galarza, Medina, Paraná and Trin also exceed. This lagoon system is typically very shallow, although in times of floods it can reach over three meters deep. Few areas of dry land alternate with these water bodies, mostly low and sandy hills; the rest is covered by a large expanse of floodplains. Spatial orientation becomes extremely difficult because the exact profile of the solid surface is constantly changing, and the visual continuity between the dry land and swamps is almost seamless due to the large number of semi-submerged vegetation. In addition, natural dams are formed by root entanglement of floating vegetation formations that are sometimes strong enough to walk on them. The climate is distinctly subtropical. Winters are relatively dry, with minimum temperatures reaching, and strong precipitations during autumn and spring. Summer is very hot and humid, with highs easily exceeding. Annual rainfall averages.
