MAKING ARGENTINA WILD AGAIN

Regeneration plans for the wetlands and steppes of the country's most epic corners offer a blueprint for conservation in South America

- Alex Postman

An hour before sunset, the Iberá Wetlands rustle to life as if cued by a conductor. Capybaras snuffle through the grass, raucous lapwings criss-cross the sky and three tawny, web-footed marsh deer wade into the edge of the swamp, which only two decades earlier had been a lifeless watering hole for cattle.

As I amble by on horseback, my guide, Mingo Gonzalez, who names a few of Iberá’s 370 bird species along the path— tiger heron, bare-faced ibis, strange-tailed tyrant—admits he didn’t know that much about wildlife as a gaucho who grew up in the nearby village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini. Back then, nature wasn’t so much revered as ignored—or feared. Previous generations used to hunt jaguars to protect their cattle, selling the skins to fur traders. Although the big cat symbolised strength among the Indigenous Guarani of Corrientes province, the last one was seen here in the 1950s.