PICTURES OF THE FOREST - PROVINCE OF MISIONES - ARGENTINA
The Iguazú Park - An ecological and cultural adventure in the heart of Mercosur
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| Misiones' Forest . In the Province of Misiones , North of Argentina , an extension of the Paraná forest can be appreciated in all of its splendor , it houses more than 2000 well-known species of plants. The main characteristic is the multi-layered vegetation. Typical tropical tree like ferns , a widely varied group of orchids and a rich variety of animals makes it possible for the tourists who dares to go deeper into the picturesque and winding red soil road , to occasionally observe regional species in their natural habitat : “coatis”, tapirs , “cuises”, (wild rodents ) , “carpinchos”( wild amphibian pigs ) , jaguars , large colorful parrots , hummingbirds , toucans and multicolored butterflies among others .
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The park was created in the year 1934 with the purpose of protecting the exuberant subtropical forest that surrounds the Waterfalls of the Río Iguazú including their animal species and characteristic vegetables. In the year 1984 it was included as World Heritage by the UNESCO.
It embraces 67.620 hectares (53.309 correspond at the category of National Park and 6.336 to the category of National Reservation) in the northwest of the Province of Misiones, Iguazú district, at 302 km of Posadas , the province capital, and at 14 km of Puerto Iguazú, city that next to Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) conform the three frontiers point ("tres fronteras" ) , where the borders of three neighboring countries : Argentina . Brazil and Paraguay join together .
The history of the Iguazú National Park is intimately bound to the birth of the current system of protected areas of Argentina, since it was the first of the north of the country and the second in the history of Argentina's Parks. A famous architect of French origin that resided in Argentina, Carlos Thays, was sent to the region in 1902 by the Governor of the then Territory of Misiones and the Ministry of the Interior, in order to trace a blueprint of the already well-known Waterfalls of Iguazú. Thays had to project the works that would allow the visitors' access to the jumps and those that would assure the permanency of these visitors in that beautiful place, and so it was him who carried out the first creation and classification project of a National Park in Argentina.
Later on, in 1909, by national law, there were carried out the land reservations around the Waterfalls, in order to settle down in them a National Park that took form starting in 1934 with the creation of the Office of National Parks.
GENERAL
DESCRIPTION: The Iguazú Park is located in one of the
richest fauna and flora natural regions of the Argentina: the Misiones'
Forest that outside of the limits of Argentina is known as Selva
Paranaense . Having as a natural limit in the north the Iguazú river ,
the Park is known worldwide by the beauty of the majestic Waterfalls of
the homonymous river. But this characteristic of its landscape constitutes
only a small part of the enormous biological importance of this natural
area. Within its limits we will find a complete sample of the flora and
fauna that time behind occupied most part of the territory of the Province
of Misiones . The great diversity of environments allows here the
existence of a varied animal and vegetable life that can grouped according
to the area that they occupy. The very water jumps harbor a vegetation
specially adapted to that constant humidity and the terrible blow of the
waters. It exists some birds species that nest and rest together on the
vertical rocky walls or behind the falls of water, while some enormous
flocks fly over the Waterfalls taking advantage of the push of upward air
masses displaced by the water in constant movement.
Animals of aquatic habits as the alligator inhabit the courses of rivers
and streams. It will surely call the attention of the tourist the great
quantity of islands that populate the upper course of the Iguazú river ,
immediately above the jumps of water. These islands are completely covered
of a type of forest different from those of the rest of the area. There a
favorable atmosphere is created for the development of plants that are
exclusive of these places and they do not grow in other places of
Argentina. It is not unusual then the fact of finding exotic species of
amphibious and even birds closely bound to this environment. Along the
coasts of the Iguazú river and its contributing streams we will find a
dense riverside forest enriched with species of the highest areas that, as
in the neighboring system of islands, is subject to periodic floods.
Inland it is found the maximum expression of the Misiones' forest with all
of its wealth and biological diversity. The great quantity of strata of
vegetation that it possesses, offers an almost limitless range of
alimentary resources, refuges, etc.. This allows the coexistence of an
enormous quantity of animal species that are distributed in an imaginary
"building" of different floors . Putting some attention the
visitor will be able to observe the animals that move on the "roof
" of the forest, at about 20 meters high, those that travel the
trunks of the trees , those that live in the reedbeds and the essentially
terrestrial ones that inhabit the floor of the forest.
FLORA: The flower wealth of the Misiones' forest surprises even the ignorant in the matter. Some 2000 species of vascular plants are known in this forest , among those there are around 90 species of trees of great size, and around 150 smaller arboreal and bushes ones. By definition, a forest is composed by numerous strata of vegetation, each one characterized by a peculiar group of species, animals as much as vegetables. The so called canopy or roof of the forest is located between the 10 and 20 meters high, and it is conformed by arboreal species of great size. It is also accompanied by native varieties of palms. The intermediate stratum is constituted by all the renewable varieties of the mentioned species, by trees of smaller height , and by attractive giant ferns, alive vestiges of prehistoric times. Below this stratum we will find the bushes, dominated among others by numerous species of bamboos. These species frequently form impenetrable reedbeds. The herbaceous stratum, is compound mainly for gramineous (grasses) and it is upholstered by organic matter in decomposition, on which infinity lichens , mosses and mushrooms proliferate (this micro community forms the so call muscinal stratum ). An enormous variety of plants that cling to the trunks and branches constitute the stratum of the epiphytic. Finally, and connecting this vegetable multitude are the lianas and climbing plants that vegetate on the branches of the highest trees and they descend with their roots until the wild floor.
FAUNA:
The variety of present animals is intimately related with the
environmental diversity. One of the most numerous groups is that of the
birds that include up to 450 recognized species until the moment for the
area. Let us keep in mind that in the Province of Misiones around 500
species have been registered and in the Argentina around 1000 ones ,
numbers that evidence the enormous biodiversity that sustains this
ecosystem.
In every wild strata are present the amphibians and the reptiles (snakes
and vipers) several of which are very poisonous. The group of the fish is
also very diversified. Two groups clearly different are found: those that
inhabit waters upstream of the waterfalls and those of downstream waters .
That formidable natural barrier has allowed the differentiation of
exclusive species of the upper course of the Iguazú river, since until
there the big carnivorous fishes of the Paraná river don't reach. The
fauna cast is completed with an uncertain quantity of insects . Thousands
of species inhabit the rivers, the jungle and the floor. The showiest
family is without any doubt that of the butterflies; some of them surprise
the visitor for their size, others for their great variety of colors and
forms.
