Wildfires Fuelled By Climate Crisis In Argentina Causing Massive Loss To Biodiversity

In the wake of a major drought, enormous fires are sweeping across northeastern Argentina causing “incalculable” losses to the wetlands, grasslands, and forests of the Ibera National Park, 40 percent of which has been burnt.

- Harry Cockburn

The national park has recently reintroduced jaguars 70 years after the local populations went extinct, and it is also home to rare pampas deer, the maned wolf, and the strange-tailed tyrant – a bird listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

According to conservationists, the prolonged droughts in the region have been exacerbated by the climate crisis in recent years, while local burning practices have also contributed to the fires raging out of control.

The Ibera Wetlands are one of the last well-preserved large subtropical grasslands of South America, and recent rewilding efforts have helped rebuild a haven for plants and animals.