The bill that seeks to legally protect the Lagunas de Guanacache as a protected natural area is about to take its final step towards the Chamber of Deputies of San Juan.
As confirmed to Diario Huarpe by Ezequiel Salomón, Director of Conservation of the Provincial Environment Secretariat, the project will be completed in the next few days to be presented in the Legislature.
A Project on Track
“The project is well on track and I trust that this year we will have a new protected area in San Juan,” Salomón expressed.
The project has already received all the approvals from the different areas of the Environment Secretariat and it is estimated that by February it will be ready to be presented in the Chamber of Deputies, once the legislative sessions begin. “In fact, the deputy who will present the project is already selected,” Salomón stated.
The Value of Lagunas de Guanacache
The Lagunas de Guanacache, also known as Bañados de Guanacache, are located in the southeast of San Juan, northeast of Mendoza, and northwest of San Luis, in the center of the Argentine region known as Cuyo.
Originally, there were 25 interconnected lagoons with abundant islands, covering an area of about 2,500 km². However, by the end of the 19th century, due to the overexploitation of the waters of the Desaguadero, Mendoza, and San Juan rivers, the lagoons began to disappear, leaving only those maintained by the water flows coming down Canal 4, a natural drainage channel.
International Recognition and Provincial Protection
Due to the importance of this wetland, on December 14, 1999, the “International Convention on Wetlands” declared the Lagunas de Guanacache as a Ramsar Site, placing them among the 1,900 most important wetlands in the world and among the 23 in the country.
The proposal to declare the lagoons a protected natural area emerged from the Environment technical team and aims to enhance the international declaration and provide a greater protection framework.
“The law will be a strategic tool for the conservation of the site and will allow us to include it in the provincial system of protected natural areas,” Salomón explained. “At the same time, it will enable us to have resources and a technical team specifically dedicated to that area.”
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