|
|
Requested News Item
| 5/29/2009 |
Argentina designates high altitude Ramsar site |
| Contacts |
|
|
|
Argentina designates high altitude Ramsar site. Argentina has named a new Ramsar site, effective World Wetlands Day 2009 – Lagunas Altoandinas y Puneñas de Catamarca (1,228,175 hectares, 26º52’S 067º56’W) – that lies between 3,010m and 6,885m a.s.l. and is part of the Laguna Blanca MAB Biosphere Reserve. As summarized by Ramsar’s Nadia Castro, it includes a complex of high Andean endorheic river basins representative of the Central Dry Puna: shallow meso- and hypersaline lakes, shallow and deep brackish lakes, and deep hypersaline lakes. 19,000 individuals of Puna flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi) and 2,100 of Andean flamingo (P. andinus) gather in this site, which represents 18% and 6% of the worldwide population of these species, respectively. The site also hosts several endemic species of the High Andean Puna, such as the Giant Coot (Fulica gigantean), Andean Avocet (Recurvirostra andina), Crested Duck (Anas specularioides alticola), Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), Andean Fox (Pseudalopex culpaeus) and a frog species endemic to the Catamarca region (Telmatobius hauthali). In addition, IUCN Red List threatened species Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) and short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata) occur in the area, as well as 14 migratory species (e.g. Calidris melanotos, C. bairdii, and Tringa flavipes). This High Andean wetland is a highly vulnerable and fragile ecosystem and is threatened by overgrazing, unregulated tourism, mining prospecting, and flamingo egg collection.
The area is one of the 14 priority sites of the Wetland Network of Importance for Conservation of High-Andes Flamingos in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Preparations for the Ramsar site designation were assisted by WWF International’s Freshwater Programme, the Danone Fund for Ramsar, and the Fundación Yuchán. [20/05/09] |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
