The Paraná and Paraguay rivers form the backbone of the La Plata Basin, a territory that not only houses the world’s largest corridor of river wetlands but is also the economic backbone of five countries, accounting for 70% of their combined GDP.
These ecosystems have positioned themselves as strategic and irreplaceable allies in facing the climate crisis, mitigating its effects through carbon capture and facilitating adaptation by acting as natural barriers against increasingly frequent storms, floods, and droughts.
Despite their critical value for biodiversity and human life, degradation is advancing at an alarming rate. Since the 1970s, anthropogenic action has eliminated 22% of the global surface of wetlands, a figure that rises drastically to 59% in Latin America.
In a context where Argentina has presented a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) with declining climate targets, the conservation of this last great free-flowing corridor becomes a priority both for health and the economy.
A key report before COP30
A few days before the start of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the Wetlands Foundation / Wetlands International has presented the research “River Wetlands of the La Plata Basin: Allies for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change”.
This document is pioneering in detailing the essential climatic function of these environments just as global leaders, the private sector, and civil organizations will meet to coordinate financing and energy transition policies.
Wetlands function as gigantic natural filters, providing 40% of the socio-ecological functions of all the world’s ecosystems. Gastón Fulquet, coordinator of the Blue Corridor program, highlights that the “water connectivity” between rivers and their floodplains is the key mechanism that allows for natural water purification.
This water quality is the basic input that supports everything from fishing and agriculture to the large industrial and port hubs located in the Paraná delta.
Visible impacts and shared management
Argentina’s Litoral region is already experiencing the climatic “new normal” with historic low water levels and recurring fires. Santa Fe’s Minister of Environment, Enrique Estévez, warned that these phenomena intensify the pressure on ecosystems and demand stronger multi-level governance.
In the face of accelerated destruction, the Blue Corridor program has promoted collaborative responses. In Argentina, it supported the inventory of more than 35,000 km² of wetlands in the middle and lower Paraná, a vital tool for land-use planning.
Simultaneously, in Brazil, it collaborated in the development of the Fire Intelligence System (SIFAU) for the Pantanal. Estévez emphasized that, given the weak national prioritization, provinces like Santa Fe (with 800 km of coastline) are adopting their own regional integration strategies.
From the territory, the perception of crisis is acute. Soledad Ferrerías, from the Floating Workshop of Victoria, Entre Ríos, notes that the current persistent low water levels are “unprecedented changes” caused by human hands, very different from the historical natural pulses.
For local communities, who feel the river as “an extension of their bodies“, self-management and the circulation of information have become fundamental care tools.
The upcoming climate summit could be the decisive opportunity to value these wetlands as the main nature-based solution for the more than 100 million inhabitants of the region.
