Building blocks for a comprehensive approach

Since October 2002, the Fundacion Vida Silvestre - WWF Associate office in Puerto Iguazu in Misiones, Argentina, is intent on solving the issues that stand in the way of a healthy forest, and has deployed an impressive range of tools to attain that goal.

The jaguar project or "proyecto tigre" is but one of the pieces of the plan. Other building blocks are a Vision for biodiversity, a "Green Corridor" law, and forest landscape restoration activities.

A Vision for the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest
Because a remedy relies on recognition of the symptoms, the starting point in the Upper Parana was to collect data on the forest and work with the governments, NGOs and universities of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. This first stage resulted in a Vision for the forest's biodiversity, published in 2003.

The "Green Corridor" law: a "Gift to the Earth" still to be unwrapped
A provincial law was passed in 1999 in Misiones, Argentina, pertaining to the "Green Corridor" - a way of protecting the remnant tracts of forest in the province and linking them to other fragmented sections in Brazil and Paraguay. The idea was to conserve the continuity of the forest whilst restoring other areas in order to create a channel of undisturbed habitat. The law also emcompasses incentives to ensure that any use of the forest is done in a sustainable way. Hailed as a "Gift to the Earth", the corridor has yet to materialize.

More about "Gifts to the Earth"

Beating inaction
The "Green Corridor" has not yet come into being because the Public Fund on which it relies to execute concrete actions has still not been confirmed. This delay has led to a lack of enthusiasm amongst the initial supporters of the law. To jolt the different actors into action, WWF is helping raise funds to implement the Corridor and make the Vision a reality. It has also initiated Forest Landscape Restoration activities in degraded or deforested areas, and pinpointed the jaguar as the species to protect to save the forest.

Restoration: patching the holes to ensure a continuous forest
Since the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest is quite fragmented, conserving what is left might not be enough to guarantee the long-term survival of its inhabitants. WWF has therefore initiated a series of restoration activities aimed at favoring the return of native forest where it has previously been destroyed or degraded.

More about WWF and Forest Landscape Restoration