Welcome
Natura International is dedicated to conserving rainforests and habitat in Latin America through bottom-up efforts led by local initiatives. We work with communities and governments, particularly at the state and regional level, to conserve land, protect watersheds and ecosystem services, and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities linked to those efforts.
Our work seeks to preserve large areas of high conservation value that protect threatened species and ecosystems. Currently our efforts focus on Argentina, where our local staff seeks to create or assist the creation of several major protected areas described on this site.
Through this work, we aim to contribute to a world where the diversity of life thrives, and people act in balance with nature.
Please join us!
Byron Swift
President
Argentina
Natura Argentina, with the support of Natura International, focuses its work on the creation of protected areas and the identification of biological values in wild areas with few routes and roads. This is an effective way to protect ecosystems. In addition, we collaborate closely with other conservation groups.
Currently, we carry out projects in different regions of Argentina:
In the provinces of Córdoba and Santiago del Estero: in the Laguna Mar chiquita (extreme northeast of Córdoba) and the adjoining area of Bañados de Río Dulce (extreme southeast of Santiago del Estero), there is the largest wetland in Argentina. We are working for the declaration of a national park in the area. This wetland protects extraordinary concentrations of waterfowl and water resources, with a potential size of more than one million hectares.
In Mendoza, there is a natural and cultural wealth that deserves to be protected: the Uspallata Valley. Natura Argentina works there from a multi-stakeholder approach to the creation of protected areas. We carry out actions to stimulate consensus, involving different sectors of society in the process of creating a national park in the area, the first in the province. The final objective is to conserve the water, the biodiversity and the history of the town; and promote local development through sustainable tourism.
In Salta province, we promote the conservation of the Chaco forest, grasslands and high wetlands in territories of great value for the well-being of local communities.
In La Rioja province, we focus our efforts on the Sierra de Famatina: this extra-Andean system is crowned with glaciers that provide water to the communities in its valleys. It is an area of high mountain ecosystems of spectacular beauty, with significant natural and cultural biodiversity.
Our actions for conservation labor are:
- Binding work with local communities;
- Collaboration with authorities and organizations at the local and national level;
- And the scientific and technical field work to support our conservation programs.
