WWF in Action: Patagonia

Protecting Argentina’s Vibrant Valdes

Peninsula Valdés is marked by its vibrant coastlines, a stunning array of tall cliffs, rocky reef and exotic marine mammals, including the southern elephant seal, sea lion, southern right whale and Magellan penguins. The area is also home to more than 60 species of birds, as well as several species of terrestrial mammals, such as the grey fox, guanaco and mara.

WWF has worked with the Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina (FVSA) to protect this diverse landscape in the following ways:

• Signed a cooperation agreement with local authorities to promote conservation in the United Nations-protected Valdés Peninsula in the Patagonia region of Argentina.
• Implemented a sustainable tourism plan for the protected area, including the establishment of a visitor center at the whale-watching town of Puerto Pirámide.
• Created the first national coastal park in the Argentine Patagonia. "Monte León" is representative of the coastal and continental biodiversity of the Argentinean Patagonia: seals, guanacos, pumas, cormorants, penguins and lesser rheas all live there.
• Established 13 wildlife private refuges.
• Work toward forest landscape restoration in the Atlantic Forest, which is one of the richest forest habitats in Argentina, as well as Paraguay and Brazil.

Photo © James Frankham/WWF-Canon