Protection and management requirements

Iguazu National Park is owned by the national government and is an integral part of Argentina’s

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National System of Federal Protected Areas SIFAP (under the National Parks Law Nº 22351) and was created as early as 1934 (Law Nº 12103). The management of this protected area is in the hands of trained professionals, including rangers. A budget is available to secure the infrastructure and equipment needs to carry out their duties responsibly. A regional technical office lends professional support, and there is a sub-tropical research centre engaged in ecological studies. Water levels are artificially modified through power plants upriver in Brazil, such as the José Richa or Salto Caxias Hydroelectric Plant, causing scenic and ecological impacts. These impacts require monitoring and mitigation and future impacts need to be prevented. Tourism management is a key task in the property minimizing the direct and indirect impacts of heavy visitation and maximizing the opportunities in terms of aware-raising for nature conservation and conservation financing. The value of the property is consolidated by the contiguity with the much larger Iguaçu National Park in Brazil but requires corresponding effective management on both sides of the international border. Over time, an increasing harmonization of planning, management and monitoring is highly desirable and indeed necessary. Ideally, a joint approach will encompass commitment at the highest political levels all the way to tangible activities on the ground based on existing efforts. Among the threats requiring permanent attention are existing and future hydro-power development upriver, ongoing deforestation in the broader region, including in the adjacent forests in nearby Brazil and Paraguay, agricultural encroachment, as well as poaching and extraction of plants. Tourism and recreation and corresponding transportation and accommodation infrastructure have undoubtedly been impacting on the property and can easily pass the limits of acceptable change. Given the ongoing transformation of the landscape around the properties in the recent decades future management will have to develop longer term scenarios and plans taking into account this reality. Beyond the relatively small park it will be important to strike a balance between conservation and other land and resource use in Misiones Province so as to maintain or restore the connectivity of the landscape. This will require working with other sectors and local communities. Eventually, the property should be buffered by adequate and harmonized land use planning in the adjacent areas in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.